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PROCEEDINGS 



OP T H E 



DEMOCRATIC STATE CONVENTION, 

HELD AT CHARLOTTESVILLE, VA, 
- - ' SEPTEMBER 9 AND 10, MO. 



• D 



DEMOCRATIC CONVENTION. 



Wednesday, Sept. 9, 1840. 

Pursuant to previous notice, toe Democratic Con- 
vention of Virginia this day convened in Char- 
lottesville. The Convention was called to order 
fey Judge Peter V. Daniel, of Richmond, on whose 
motion Major Charles Yancey, of Buckingham, 
temporarily look the chair. 

Judge Peter V. Daniel, in behalf of a committee 
previously appi^inted at an informal meeting of 
the members, made the following report; which 
was concurrea in by the Convention: 

Thecoramitiee appointed last evening by an in- 
f-jrmal meeting of the members of the democratic 
Convention, to recommend to the Convention a 
plan for its organization, have performed the duty 
assigned them, and beg leave to submit the follow- 
ing resolutions foriis adoption: 

1. Resolved, That there be appointed a President, 
five Vice Frerideats, and two Secretaries, to pre- 
side over its deliberations, and to record its pro- 
ceedings. 

2. Resolved, That Col. LINN B-\NKS, of Ma- 
dison, be recommended as a suitable individual to 
act as the President of the Convention. 

3. Resolved, That Major Charles Yancev, of 
Buckingham, be recommended as the I't Vice Pre- 
sident; John Cargill, of Sussex, as 2i Vice Presi- 
dent; Col. Andrew Beirne, of \lonro», as 3d Vice 
President; Gen. Wm. F. Gordon, of Albemarle, as 
4th Vice President; and Inman Horner, of Fau- 
qier, as 5th Vice President. 

4. Resolved, That Thomas Ritchie, esq. and Wm. 
A. Harris, esq. be recommended as suitable persons 
to be appointed Secietaries. 

5. Resolved, That it be recommended to the 
Cenvention to adopt the rules of the House of De- 
legates of Virginia, as the rules of their proceed- 
ings, so far as ihe same may be applicable to this 
Convention ; but that in voting upon any proposi- 
tion upon which the ayes and noes are ordered, the 
veie shall be taken by counties, cities, and bo- 
roughs represented, which shall be entitled to the 
same number of votes that they are entitled to in 
the House of Delegates. 

6. Resolved, That this committee recommend 
that the President of the Convention request the 
Rev. Clergy to open the proceedings of the Con- 
vention with prayer. 

On being conducted to the chair, Col. Banks de- 
livered an appropriate address, setting forth the ob- 
jects of the Convention. 

On motion of Thos. Ritchie, esq. Richard B. 
GoocH was appointed Assistant Secretary. 

Judge Peter V. Daniel offered the following re- 
olation, which was adopted : 



Resolved, That a committee of twenty-three be 
appointed by the president, to report s,uch arrange- 
ments as the Convention may adopt for furihermg 
the objects of its meeting. 

Whereupon, the president appointed the follow- 
ing gentlemen to compose the committee aforesaid, 
to Wit: Robert Butler, Edward P. Scott, John W. 
Nash, Wm. Meredith, Samuel C. Anderson, Wm. 
N. Meriwether, Norborne M. Taliaferro, John B. 
Ailworth, John Mercer Garnett, John W. Tyler, 
James Bosher, John Z. Holladay, Ambrose P. 
Hill, John R. Wallace, Henry Bidinger, James 
Harvie Carson, Henry B. Jennings, Purierfield A. 
Heiskell, Augustus A. Chapman, Daniel H Hrg?, 
Robert M. Hudson, Robert A. Thompson, and 
William Maiteney. 

The Convention was then most ably and elo- 
qnenily ad Iressed by John Z Ho!laday, ot Louifia, 
and Norborne M. Taliaferro, of Franklin. 

After which, the Convention took a recess til! 4 
o'clock, p. m. 

Wedne DAY, 4 p. m. 

Ths Convention, being called to order by the 
President, was opened with a prayer from the Rev. 
Wm. S. White, of Charlottesville. 

Gen. Win. F. Gordon delivered an eloquent and 
stirring address. 

Mr. Nash, frpm the commi tee of twenty-three, 
reported the (o'lowing resolutions, which were 
adopted unanimfiusly: 

1. Resolved, That the delegates of each county, 
city, aad borough, be requested to lay before the 
Secretary, on or before Friday morning, a list of 

he delegates who are in attendance on this Con- 
vention, together with the names of thf='ir respective 
counties, ciies, and boroughs, endorsed on their 
memorandum, and the post office of each dele- 
ga'e. 

2. Resolved, That a committee of twenty-three — 
one from each electoral district — be appointed to 
prepare an address from the Convention to the 
people of Virginia, on the srt at poliiical quesions 
involved in the approaching Pre^i^enlial elecii'n, 
and on the superior claim's of MARTIN VAN 
BUREN to the Chief Magistracy of the Union. 

[The following gentlemen were appointed to 
compose the committee : John S Millson, Robert 
Ridley, John W. Nash, Alexander Dortb, Charles 
Yanc7, Paul Naylor, James Garland, Robert I. 
Poul*<in, Jno. M. Garnett, John W. Tyltr, Peter 
V. Daniel, Thomas J. Randolph, Wiliiam Smith, 
Charles Hunton, John C. R. Taylor, James H. 
Carson, Reuben Moore, Porterfield A. Heiskell, 
Augustas A. Chapman, Robert M. Hudson, Na- 



thaniel Burwell, Robert A. Thompson, Cyrus 
Vance.] 

3. Resolved, That a commitlee of seven be ap- 
pom'ed to take all appropriate measures /or the 
dislribuion of the speeches and electoral tickets 
which have been prepared by ihe central comnaii- 
tee for this convention, among the various counties 
and cities of the Commonwealih, and that as those 
speeches and tickets have been obtained in antici- 
pation of the wants of this cinvenlion, upon the 
sole responsibility of the central committee, each 
of the delegates composing the convention be re- 
quesied to contribute such sum of money as he 
may find convenient, not less than two dollarv, to 
raise funds which may be necessary, to reimburse 
that commitiee, and to meet other expenses which 
have been or may be incurred, in promoting the 
object of this Convention. 

4. Resolved, That a committee of twenty-three 
be appointed, whose duty it shall be to mature and 
report the most advisable scheme of a regular coun- 
ty organization, by which all legitimate means may 
be employed to animate and concentrate the ener- 
gies of the Republican pany, to bring every qua- 
lified voter to the polls, and to rally throughout 
every county in the State the entire Democratic 
strength to the maintenance of their cherished prin- 
ciples; and that such committee be recommended 
to con'dder and report on the propriety of having 
sub-commitiecs appointed by each county to chal- 
len<'e and to canvass before the ci ramissioners of 
election;; every bad and su«piciou!i vote by what- 
ever party offered; and also on the propriety of 
having in every county or district, where th«re may 
be reason to believe that the sentiments of the De- 
le<»ate or Senator from such county or district do 
not accord with those of his constituents, books of 
instruction opened by the side of the poll-takers 
for the purpose of ascettaining the sense of the 
people on the propriety of electing, during the next 
session of the Legislature, United Stales Senaiois 
friendly to the present Administration. 

[The following gentlemen were appointed under 
the above resolution: Theophilus Fisk, Thomas 
Wallace, Nivison Waikins, Tygnal Jones, J. Wil- 
lis Wilson, Paul Taylor, Geoige P. Kelsee, John 
B. Ailworth, John R. Taylor, of JMiddlesex, Walker 
P* Conway, Thomas Ritchie, Wm. F. Gordon, 
Alexander Holladay, John B. Downman, William 
Castleman, Wm. R. Almond, Abraham Byrd, Ro- 
bert J. Taylor, Andrew Bierne, Robert M. Hud- 
son, John S. Davidson, Robert A. Thompson, Cy- 
ras Vance] 

5. Resolved, That a committee of seven be ap- 
poitited, whose duty it shall be to ascertain in what 
counties no corresponding committees have been 
appoined by the Republican Convention of last 
February, or by the Republican party in ihns3 
counties, and on duly advising with the delegates in 
this convention from these or neighboring coun- 
ties and to recommend by name Republican citi- 
zens for the immediate constituiioa of such com- 
mittees. 

[The following gentlemen constitute the commit- 
tee for the above named purpose: John M. Selden, 
George W. Macrae, James T. Hill, Reuben C. 



Kneisley, Wm. Marteny, Robert J. Taylor, A. H 
Taylor.] 

6. Resolved, That a committee of one from each 
electoial district be appointed, whose duty it shall 
be to collect the sense of the people on the pending 
election — to estimate the prospects of the result, 
and to asceriain the character of the means, de- 
vices, charge*, and humbugs employed by the Fe- 
deral party for defeating the election of Martin Van 
Buren. 

[The following gentlemen were appointed to 
compose Ihe committee aforesaid: Robert Butler, 
Richard H. Parham, Higgtrson Hancock, Wm. 
Mere diih, William C. Flournoy, Robert H.Gray, 
Natnaniel Wilson, John B. Ailwonh, Benjamin F. 
Dabney, Alexander Fiizhugh, Samuel D. Denoon, 
James L Gordon, Robert T. Willis, Stevens T. 
Mason, Walker P. Conway, John S. Calvert, Ed- 
ward H. Smith, Benjamin F. Graham, August A. 
Chapman, INathaniel Burwell, Cyrus McCormick, 
Jos. G. Lefevre, Wm. Marteney.] 

7. Resolved, I'hat a committee of 23 be appointed 
to consider and report upon any other matters, 
which may not have been embraced in the prece- 
ding resolutions. 

[Commiitee: Archibald Atkinson, N. M. Mar- 
tin, Abner Ciump, Tygnal Jones, Samuel C. An- 
derson, Rob. A. Clements, G. P. Kee.-ee, J. H. 
Dix, Danitl Dejarnatt, J. N. Powell, Washington 
Greenhow, Litilebury N. Liggon, John Willis, 
James French, Henry Eedinser, Philip Pittman, 
Robert Grattan, Benjamin F. Porter, Andrew 
Beirne, Henry Ribble, Daniel H. Hoge, Jacob Gos- 
hoin, Joseph G. LeFevrc.] 

Mr. Ritchie then offered the following resolution, 
which was adopted: 

Resolved, That the President be requested to make 
arrangemenis for the accomodation of such ladies 
as may with to attet*d the proceedings of this Con- 
vention. 

On motion, Thomas Ritchie, esq. was requested 
to act as Treasurer. 

The Convention then adjourned till to-morrow 
morning, at 10 o'clock. 

Thursday, September 10th, 10 a. m. 

The Convention met, puriuant to adjournment, 
and was opened with prayer by Rev. William S. 
While. 

Mr. Leake, from the committee to distribute do- 
cuments, moved that the same be enlarged so as to 
consist of twenty-one members. 

[The committee, as thus organized, is as follows: 
Mordecai Cook, jr. Thomas Wallace, John M. 
Trevilian, William Meredith, John W. Wilson, 

Charles E. Davis, Williams, James H. Dix, 

Benjamin F. Dabney, George W. Mcarae, J. M. 
Selden, Shelton F. Leake, Thomas Hill, Henry M. 
Lewis, John S. Davidson, Philip C. Jones, George 
Baylor, Cyrus H. McCormick, Andrew Beirne, 
William Marteney, Joseph G. LeFevre.] 

On motion, the committee on miscellaneous mat- 
ters was directea to reorganize, so as "to consist of 
a member from each electoral district to be ap- 
pointed by the different delegations; and that each 
member be entitled in committee to the vote to 
which his delegation is entitled under the rules of 
this Convention." 



The committee thus organized, consisted of the 
following persons: 

John N. Taziwell, Robert Ridley, Archibald 
Campbell, Tygnal Jones, S. C. Anderson, Adol- 
phus D. Read," Nathaniel Wilson, John B. Ail- 
worth, Benj. F Dabney, J. N. Powell, James M. 
Selden,Thos. J. Randolph, Wm.Smiih, Wm. W. 
Wallace, Henry Bedinger, Nathaniel Burweli, 
Isaac Thomas, George Baylor, Andrew Beirne, 
Daniel H. Hoge, Henry Ribble, R. A. Thompson, 
Joseph G. LeFevre. 

The convention was thsn addressed by William 
Smith, ejq. in a strain of high i-ouled and surpass- 
ing eloquence: after which a recess was taken un- 
til 4 o'clock p. m. 

Thursday evening, 4 p. m. 

The convention again convened Henry Be- 
dinger, esq of Jefferson, claimed the undivided at- 
tention of all present by a chaste and forcible ad- 
dress. 

The Hon. William H. Roane, of the United 
States Senate, was then introduced to the Conven- 
tion and deiiverej a highly impre»:sive address, 
portions of which were most tiushmgly eloquent. 

Daniel H. Hoge, of Montgom-.ry, delivered a 
brief but peninent address. 

Theophiltts Fiik then made some interesting 
and happy remarks, after which the Convention ad- 
journed. 

Friday, September II. 

The Convention met, and was opened with 
prayer by the Rev. Wm. S. White. 

The several committees made reports upon the 
matters consigned to their care; which were agreed 
to by the Convenion. 

(These ri-ports will be found in the sequel.) 

On motion, it was 

Resolv:d, That ihe following gentlemen, resident 
in Richmond, be appointed a committee lo append 
such documents to the Address of this Convention 
as they may think pr 'per, to wit: Thomas Ritchi", 
Peter V. Daniel, Washington Greeahow, Jas. A. 
Siddon and John Rutherfoord. 

John Willis, esq. of Orangs, read a letter from 
the Hon. George M. Dallas, of Pennsylvania, 



which he moved to be printed, together with the 
proceedings of the Convention. Agreed to. 

Washington Greenhow, e-q of Richmond, and 
Wm. Smith, esq of Culpeper, addressed the Con- 
vention in a brief, but admirable manner; after 
which, the usual recets was taken. 

Fuur o'clock, p. m. | 

Samuel C. Anderson, esq. of Prince Edward, j 
took ihe stand and delivered a lucid and effective | 
addre^^s. 

James Garland, esq of Pittsylvania, made some 
brief and well-pointed remarks. 

Th 'S. Ritchie, esq. offered the following resolu- 
tion, which was unanimously adopted: 

Resolved, That the cordial thanks of this conven- 
tion be presented to the Committpe of Arrange- 
ments of Charlottesville, for the very judicious and 
admirable arrangements they have made for the 
accommodation of the Convention; to the Rev. 
Wm. S. Whitp, for the eloquent and appropriate 
offices which he has been kind enough to render to 
this Convention; and also to the citizens of Char- 
lot;es(^ille g-nerally, for their kindness and hospita- 
lity to our several members. 

Paul Taylor, esq of Halifax, offered the follow- 
ino resolutions, which were unanimously adodted: 

L Rfsoloed, That the thanks of this Convention 
be given to the president, for the a Imirable manner 
ill which he has presided over its deliberation"^. 

2. Reiolued, That the thanks of this Convention 
be given to the secretary and assistant secretaries, 
for their atteniion to its proceedings. 

Col. Banks, as presid-nt of the Convention, then 
delivered an appropriate valedictory address; after 
which, on motion of Robert Ridley, esq' of South- 
ampton, the Convention adjourned sine die. 

LINN BANKS, President. 
Charlks Yancy, \st Vice President. 
JdHN CaRGill, ^d Vkce President. 
Andrew Beirne, 5d Vice President. 
Wm. F. G .rdon. 4!/i Vice P resilient. 
Inman HurneRj 5tk Vice President. 

Tho5. Ritcie, 1 

Wm. a. Harris, > Secretaries. 

Richard B. Gooch S 



ADDRESS TO THE PEOPLE OF VIRGINIA. 

(Unanimously adopted by the Convention.) 



Fellow -ciTiziiNs: We address you on no com- 
mon occasion. A contest is drawing to a close 
which yields in importance to none that h^s agitated 
our country since the origin of our Government. 
This is the last time you will hear our united v dee 
before its eventful termina'inn. Permit us, then, 
to appeal to yoarrea>on and patriotism once more, 
in t'le words of soberness and truth. We shall not 
attempt to intlame your passions or exasperate 
your prejudices. Did we not rely upon thcjastice 
of our cause, we have yet too much respect for 
our institutions and for y urselves to wish for ruc- 
cess by meins so perilous and of such doubtful 
morality. We have witnessed, with no apprehen- 
sion for ourselves, but much for the tranqnil i y and 
happiness of these free and flourishing Spates, the 



inflammatory appeals and menacing declarations 
of our adversarie*:. The hints of physical resis- 
tance, the threats of revolution, the vindictive 
cries which have been echoed by sinister acclama- 
tions, have filled our breasts with a sorrow too 
deep, have .shadowed our minds with a for< cast too 
melanrholy, not to deter us from language and ex- 
pedients honile to the hirmony of society, destruc- 
tive of the charm of life, and ominous for those free 
institutions which can only co-exist with modera- 
tion, a manly ?e!f-restraint, habitual reverence for 
th? .sanctity of law, a just regard for the indepen- 
dence of opinion. 

Would that those high in sta'ion and character, 
who have exhibited an example so much to he 
deprecated, might be convinced that no good, which 



.6 



even in their opinion is to be effected by a change 
of mea and measures, can, in the smallest degree, 
compensaie for the deep and enduring evils in- 
fiicied by a recourse to such dangerous and discre- 
diiable means. In the midst of our heaied contro- 
versies and fleeting divisions, we bhould recollect, 
thai we are children of one common count' y, 
bound together by n« ordinary ties; and that we 
are depositories of asacied tm-^t, which it is, above 
all, our duty lo God and man to transmit unim- 
paired to posienty. "Let us then, fellow citizen^," 
in the benignant language of the sta'e^man and 
the patriot, ''i.nite with one heart and mind; let us 
restore to social inlercourse that harmony and af- 
fection, wiihout which liberty and life itself are 
but dreary things. And let us reflect, that having 
banished from our land that religious intolerance, 
under which mankind s;o long bled.ind sufl"ered, 
■ue have yet gained little, if we countenance a po- 
litical intolerance as despotic as wicked, and capa- 
ble of as bitter and bloody persecutions." 

We have said, that since the origin of our Go- 
vernment, the country has never been agitated by 
a more eventful coniest. It is not a mere combnt 
of party; one of those ordinary conflicts betwet n the 
compeiiiors and incumbenis of office, which, in a 
popular Government, must be of frequent recur- 
rence. It is a controver-y which involves vital 
doctrines, great questions, consequences momen- 
tous and liisting. That error is fatal, which sup- 
poses that the conflict between the good and evil 
principles of society, is settled by the establish- 
ment of a free Constitutic n or the adoption of a ra- 
tional frame of Government. The warning voice 
of history teaches us that the forms of freedom 
may long sui Vive its substance; and the maxim is 
not more trite than true, that "Eternal vigilance is 
the price (f liberty." 

Our own brief annals furnish us with striking il- 
lustrations of these solemn truihs. Through much 
forbearance, sacrifice, and mutual compromise, our 
forefuihtrs, who had learned ihe value of freedom 
at the cost of their blood, and whose patriotism had 
been purified and strensihened by the fire of perse- 
cution, succeeded in framing a Convtitution, which 
blends in harmonious union the es; ential elnnenis 
of liberty and order. It is known, that in the con- 
vention which accomplished this gteai and good 
work, there were some hostile to popular institu- 
tions, and more who sincerely doubted their efficacy 
or durability. Fortunately for us, and for thi se 
who are to come after us, they who- had faith in 
the right and advantage of s-elf-eovernment pre- 
vailed, and the result has proved that their 
hopes Were not vain, nor their confidence mi."- 
applied — as more than half a century has new 
elapsed since the finishing stone was placed upon 
that noble and protecting edifice. Under the 
fostering guide, and inciting impulse of free 
principles, we have rapidly grown up to be a 
great people, and have made ourselves felt as a 
power of the first cla^s amongst the nations of the 
earth. His-tory furnishes not the most remotfj pa- 
rallel of a progress so marvellous and a prosperity 
so pervading. It is, as it were, hut yesterday, and 
when these United States verified the prophecy, 
"A nation shall be born in a day." And what do 
we already behok? Magnificent ci'ies stad the 



immense line of our coast, and even'crown the banks 
of our remotest rivers. Immense regiens, which 
were waste and wilderness when we started ia 
the career of nations, have been transformed into 
fiourish'ng States. The majestic streams which 
pent.trate our wide-spread territory, like the veins 
and arteri'^s that convey the life-blood through the 
human frame, eroan under the burdens of industry 
and agriculture, while our ships expand their 
sails to every breeze which stirs the bosom of the 
ocean. And what is better still, civilization has 
made an equal progress. The schcjlma^^ter is 
abroad in the land, and relgion lifts her soothing 
or warning voice on every side. All these bles- 
sinss, fellow citizens, which make us indeid a fe- 
cu lar people, we owe to ihe establi.-'.hment of a well 
ordered Commonwealth; we owe them to those, 
who, in spite of the fears of the timid, and the ob- 
jections of the hosiile, infu>ed largely into our in- 
stiiutions the vivifying spirit of freedom. We need 
not ask if the same happy and ennobling result 
would hav* been witnessed, had their adversaries 
trium.phed. 

But those who were defeated or disappointed in 
the convention which formed our wise and free 
Constitution, d d not renounce their principles or 
their designs. They sought to effect covertly and 
indirectly, that whicii, when openly proposed, had 
been rejected. They endeavored to strain the Con- 
stitution from i's literal expression and obvious 
meaning, to accomplish their original purposes. 
They strove to asyimilate substantially and in prac- 
tice, to the foreign model which they admired, in 
spite, nay, some of them on account of, its abuses 
and corruptions. Already, under the administra- 
tion of Washington, the eloquence and sophistry of 
Hamilton, it) defiance of the remonstrances of the 
leaders of the Republican party, committed vio- 
lence upon the Constitution, by the establishment 
of a Bank of the United States, the creature and 
instrument of a vicious funding system, and the 
prolific soutce of the !<in''red evils which have fol 
lowed in the train. Ti is was done, too, when the 
rerolleciion was (resh thai ttie power to create cor- 
porations had, in the convf-niion, been proposed to 
be given to the Federal Government, but rejected 
for the very reason, among olher.s., that it might 
lead tLti the istabii-hment of a bank. What a les- 
son of vigilance does it not read to us, when we re- 
flect that this act of UFurpation was committed or 
satctioned by men, the integrity of many of uhom 
It were temerity to question. 

When once this inroad was made upon the Con- 
stitution, the accumulation of consequential evils 
was r.-spid. Among these, in the succeeding admi- 
nistration, an e.xpenive and opprc.v-ive standing 
army, an alien and sedition law, which invested the 
Pres'dent with powers unconsti utii nai and tyran- 
nical, stand unenviahly conspicuous. But a young 
people, who were so near the source of their liber- 
ties, and who-e minds were yet imbued wi h tie he- 
roism of thetr Revolutionary s'ruggle, were not ea- 
sily corrupted or subdued. They opposed a manly 
resistance to these usurpa'ion--^, which, if it did not 
at once cheek, soon hurled the ofi"enders I'wm the 
high place.? of power. Tne helm wa.s then grasped 
by the vigorous hand of a Republican statesman, 
and the vessel guiaed in the couric laid down by 



the Constitution. To this fortunate change and 
patriotic reform, Virginia chiefly contribated; and 
the famous Report and Resolutions of her Legisla- 
ture, which the occasion called forih, are still ap- 
pealed to as the best commentary upon the Consti- 
tution, and the ablest defence of our reserved 
rights. 

But the Federal party, though vanquished, was 
not extinct. Its voi^e was heard in an^ry, though 
vain murmurs against the principles rud policy of 
Mr. Jefferson, then, as now, stigmauz -d as hostile 
to order, property, morals, and re gion. That 
great statesmaQ had predicted, after h;^ election to 
the Presidency, that "The Federalists would never 
attempt again to get into power under their own 
proper name." After retiring from the Presiden- 
tial chair, he boldly portrayed their prominent fea- 
tures in the following term?: "The Federal party 
looks to a single and splendid Government of an 
aristocracy, founded on banking institutions and 
moneyed corporations, under the guise and cloak 
of their favored branches of manufactures, com- 
merce, and navigation, riding and ruling over the 
plundered ploughman and beggared yeomanry." 
It was not, however, until the country was involv- 
ed in a war with England, that it ventured to lift 
up its head and prepare for a new struggle. Tak- 
ing advantage of the danger and dismay of such a 
crisis, it organized a desperate' opposition against 
the constituted authorities of the country. Yes, 
feiluw-citzen-, when every generous heart glowed 
■with patriotic devotion, and every true arm was 
bared for the conflict, there were those within our 
own bosom who taunted cur weakness, gloried 
in onr defeats, mocked at our calamiiies, with- 
held all sympathy and support from our gallant 
and suffering defenders, and even meditated dis- 
union, while a powerful enemy "was ravaging 
our border?, and giving our Capitol to ihe 
lames !" Among those who plotted the deadly de- 
signs of the Hartford Convention, there is not ohq 
ving who is not naw opposed to the present Ad- 
2iinistration, Among those who opposed the war, 
who denied men and means to carry it on, who 
ivere most active in counteracting the administration 
)f James Madison, is found the great leader of the 
•Vtiig party — he who is now proposing an unsatu- 
•al alliance between the Federalists of Massachu- 
setts and the Republicans of Virginia, and who, if 
here be any truth in the signs of the times, is con- 
3mplated to be the leader of a new dynasty. These 
nen, however, failed in 1815, a* they probably will 
ail in 1840. The triumphant conclusion of the 
.var was a fatal blow to the party by which it had 
>3en opposed, and opposed, too, by such culpable 
means, and for such criminal purposes. It relied 
rom the contest in shame and confasion. 
^ But the conflict with the colossal power of Great 
oritain had entailed great evils upon th? country, 
rne confusion of its finances, snd the difficulties of 
ne times, in an evil hour, induced the party ia 
)ower again to charter a National Bank. Even 
VIr. Madison, the purest of men, and the most en- 
ightened of statesmen, was led to sanction an in- 
stitution, of which he had been the consistent, an<l 
lerhaps ablest opponent. Tnis was a fatal error. 
•l was- an adoption of the master heresy of Fede- 
al;sm, whose partisans, hailing the new dawn, 



emerged from their political caves and hiding 
places, and, throwing aside their distinctive name, 
coalesced with the ruUng party. The evil conse- 
quences of this false step were once more exhibited. 
The old landmarks of Republicanism began to dis- 
appear; the loose doctrines of construction and im- 
plication were revived, and received but too gene- 
ral an assent. Appropriations were lavished upon 
objects not authorized by the Constitution, an un- 
just tariff for protection was established, and from 
time to time augmented, until it reached so oppres- 
sive a height as almost to drive the South to the 
brink of a civil war. During the Presidency of 
the second Adams, these evils reached an intolera- 
ble head, when fortunately a retributive reaction 
commenced, and signalized itself by his ejection 
from Ihe exalted station to which he had never 
been elevated by a majority of the people. As the 
usurpations of the elder Adams had been arrested 
by the civil revolution of 1800, and by the election 
of Thomas Jefferson, so the mal-administration of 
the younger Adams was terminated by the election 
of the iron-nerved Andrew Jackson. Then com- 
menced a long, and, at times, a doubtful war 
against these various usurpations;, the system of un- 
constitutional improvements, the miscalled Ameri- 
can System, and, finally, that patron or creature of 
every abuse, the Bank of the United States, which 
strove, but in vain, for a recharter, by every species 
of corruption and intimidation. 

The heroic chieftain, who had to contend with 
enemies more formidable than those whom he had 
conquered in the field, was succeeded by the genu- 
ine and tried Republican, who now grasps the helm 
of state with a mild but steady hand. It has been 
his fate to bear the combined shock of these accu- 
mulated evils, or rather of their formidable conse- 
quences. The very commencement of his admini- 
stration was embarrassed by difficulties the most 
complicated, and assailed by dangers the most ap- 
palling. The entirs commercial system of the 
country was suddenly prostrated, and doubt and 
dismay p^^ralyzed for a time the energies of a great 
nation. The Slate banks, which, in default of a 
bet'er order of things, and before the country was 
prepared for a radical reform, had become the de- 
positaries of a national income, universally sus- 
pended, and thus legally disqualified themselves for 
performing the trust which had been reposed ia 
them. Tne catastrophe was as perplexing as it 
was pervading. After anxious reflection and 
mature deliberation, the President deemed that 
the sccasion had arisen to return to the system 
contemplated, and. indeed, established by the 
founders of the Government, by withdrawing 
from ail connection with institutions not recog- 
nised by the Constitution, and which Congress 
could neither create nor control. He saw the im- 
minent hazard to which such a proposition would 
expose his popularity; for the enmity of eight or 
nine hundred banks, wuh all their officers, stock- 
holders, and dependants, was more to be dreaded 
than the hostility of one institution, however great. 
Yet he did not shrink from the responsibility im- 
posed upon him by duty and circumstances. 

The measure encountered the sincere doubts of 
some, the factieus hostility of others, and the hy- 
pocritical objections of tbose who but sought aa 



opportunity to unite with an opposition which was 
every day growing more formidable to the Admi- 
nistration, The event proved, that the President 
had not exaggerated the difficulties which envi- 
roned the patn of duty. Whole Common ^Jfcalfh?, 
following the example of his naiive Slate, with- 
drew their approbation and support, and he found 
himself for a time in a most discouraging minority. 
These are trials to test the character of a public 
man, and the principles by which he is governed. 
Mr. Van Buren was true to himself and to his 
cau.»e. Sustained by a clear conviction of right 
and a stern sense of duty, he adhered calmly but 
firmly to the dictates of his conscience and reason, 
at ths same time declaring his willingness to co- 
operate with Corvgress in any constitutional system 
-which it might devise. That body, several times, 
by small majorities in one branch, declined to 
adopt the proposed reform, yet offered no substitute. 
The President, therefore, thought himself justified 
in persevering in his original recommendation. 
Soon the banks which had resumed suspended in 
great numbers a second time, and it now became 
obvious to every candid mind that the connection 
which had subsisted between these corporations and 
the Government could not be with prudence re- 
newed. Apprehensions were qnieted, prejudices 
removed, objections disappeared, the public mind 
gradually righted itself, until a free and unbiassed 
majority of Congress, fresh from the people, adopt- 
ed the Independent Treasury. 

We will not say, that this much controverted 
system may not have defects, like every thing of 
human contrivance or execution; that it has not 
points to be guarded, and tendencies to be watched 
or checked. But it is free from constitutional ob- 
jections. Even those who opposed it must admit 
that it has become necessary, under the circum- 
stances of the country; and we trust that, if wisely 
administered, it will exercise a salutary ioflucnce 
upon enlightened and judici-ius enterprise, and pre- 
vent the recurrence of the manifold evils to which 
the opposite system has given birth. Although 
established chiefly, if not solely, wiih a view to the 
financial advantage and purity of the Government, 
we would fain persuade ourselves that its inciden- 
tal etfect will be to curb mildly, yet effectively, 
that reckless spirit of adventure which has tempted 
our people into such perilous straits, and that it 
will do so, by sustaining and enlarging the metallic 
basis of our fluctuating currency, maintaining a 
prosperous steadiness of prices and wages, check- 
ing in time the excessive ingress of foreign produc- 
tions, and serving as ballast to the buoyant bark of 
credit, which may hereafter unfurl its sails to e^'cry 
breeze with greater confidence and security. Not- 
withstanding the many evils which it was predicted 
would immediately follow its adoption, confidence 
has begun to return, prices risen, and business be- 
come more animated; and we have good reason to 
hope (thanks to abundant crops, and the irrepressi- 
ble energies of a great people) that we have already 
passed through the darkest hour, and that the light 
which is beginning to break is the dawn of a bright- 
er and longer day of prosperity. 

To show the fallacy of the objection that the In- 
dependent Treasury will depress the rewards of la- 
bor, we need but mention the fact that there are 



countries with an exclusive metallic cnrrency — 
which it is not the object nor the effect of this bill 
to establish — where wages are higher than they 
have ever been here; and paper money countries, 
Ireland for example, are proverbial for the pover- 
ty and destitution of the working classes. In fact, 
the rate of wages depends much more on demand 
and supply, than upon the character of the circu- 
lating medium. They are the last to rise with the 
expansion, and the first to fall with the contrac- 
tion of the currency, while their nominal increase 
is delusive, when the prices of the comforts and 
necessaries of life increase in equal or greater pro- 
portion. 

The great questions which have agitated the pub- 
lic mind during the late and present Administra- 
tions, have revived the contending principles and 
questions which divided parties at the origin of the 
Government. As they were arrayed then, they are 
marshalled new; and the old war is renewed be- 
tween the friends of an equal and well-regulated li- 
berty, and the partisans of privilege and monopo- 
ly. We shall briefly recapitulate the principles 
maintained and proudly avowed by the Republican 
pa'tv of Virginia. 

We believe that the Constitution is a compact 
between the States, and that the Federal Govern- 
ment is invested wiih those powers only which are 
given to it in express terms. We believe that 
public morality is as binding as private integrity, 
and that the terms of the Constitution should be 
held as .sacred as the word of honor. Such a 
rule is our only defence against those insidious 
encroachments which are more to be dreaded than 
avowed hostility. We believe that no money 
should be levied from the people, which is iiot re- 
quired for the legitimate purposes of revenue, and 
that the amount thus raised should be as moderate 
as is consistent wiih an enlightened economy. We 
are utterly opposed to the whole progeny of Fede- 
ral encroachments, among which, ihe objects of 
our peculiar aversion, because we have seen and 
felt their evil tendencies, are a National Bank, ex- 
travag.int schemes of Internal Improvement by the 
General Governnsent, and an oppressive Tariff 
for protection. We are averse to a National Bank, 
first and foremost, because such an institution finds 
no warrant in the Constitution, and because it is 
not only unnecessary, but both reason and expe- 
rience prove it to be dangerous and corrupting. 
We want no colossal moneyed institution esta- 
blished, in violation of the Constitution, to mono- 
polize the revenue, centralize the capital, and 
control at pleasure the business and prosperity of 
our wide and diversified country? We are opposed 
to the system of Internal Imrrovement by the 
General Government, because it i,- not sanctioned 
by ihe Constitution — an ius>uperable objection, and 
because we believe that such works can be con- 
structed with more economy and advantage by the 
States themselves. We wish, moreover, to see the 
sovereign States of this Union independent of the 
humiliating bounty of the Federal Government, 
which can, besides, supply no money for such, or 
any other purpose, which is not derived from the 
people, and would be more wisely and fairly ex- 
pended by their local authorities. We are opposed 
to a tariff for protection, because the colleclioa of 



revenue, for such an object, is not provided for by 
ihe Constitution, and, moreover, because such a 
system is unjust, partial, oppressive, and pecu- 
liarly fatal to the planting States; which, under its 
withtring influence, saw their resources gradually 
decay, their prosperity languish, and desolation 
spread over their flourishing towns and fertile fields. 
We are, in a word, in favor of a strict construction 
of the Constitution, a mild and economical Go- 
vernment, and equal laws, which may equalize the 
burdens as well as the blessings of Government, 
and under whose genial sway, peace, order, liber- 
ty, morality and religion, may flourish and endure. 
This, fellow-citizens, is our simple creed, as we de- 
voutly believe it was that of the fathers of the Re- 
publican church. 

Upon all these great principles and questions, 
we are satisfied, that the present incumbent of tbe 
Executive chair fairly represents the opinions and 
wishes of Republiean Virginia; infinitely more ?o, 
even our adversaries must admit, than the candi- 
date they have presented for tbe popular sufl"rages. 
Prom his youth upwards, Mr. Van Euren has been 
unwavering in his devotion to the cause of the 
people. He is emphatically the "child and 
champion" of Democracy. The unappeasable 
hostility of the enemies of Democratic principles, 
is the b?st guarantee of his devotion to popular 
rights. He is himself a striking example of ths 
liberal characier of our institutions, which open a 
career to the honorable ambition of eviry citizen. 
He has risen by merit alone, to the highest office in 
the gift of a free people, which he not only fills 
with distinction, but adorns by his personal quali- 
ties. Of clear intellect, firm resolution, provident 
sagacity, admirable temper, and amiable deport- 
ment, and unspotted reputation, he is the model of 
a Republican statesman. We first hear of him, 
in early life, by the side of the patriotic Tompkins, 
animating the great State of New York to the sup- 
port of the Government, in its fearful struggle with 
Great Britain. Throwghout that perilous contest, 
he was the ardent and unflinching defender of his 
country's rights; and it was then, and for such a 
devotion, he first incurred the bitter and yet lasting 
hostility to those who gave heart to the enemy, by 
their criminal opposition and intrigues. He was 
the leader of that party, which sought, and with 
success, to reform and liberalize the Constitution of 
his native State. He was the first to risk his popu- 
larity in New York, by lifting up his voice against 
that oppressive tariff which was a blight to the pros- 
perity of the Syuth. When called to the National 
Council, we find him still the conspicuous advo- 
cate of Republican principles. He did not hesi- 
tate, when Vice President, to give his casting vote 
in favor of a bill to prohibit the circulation by the 
mail of incendiary publications throughout the 
Southern States — an abuse, which converted into 
an instrument of their destruction an institution 
which was created and sustained by the Federal 
Government. He thus early made himself an ob- 
ject of peculiar hostility to the fanatics of Aboli- 
tion, whO;have never ceased to pursue him for his 
fidelity to tbe eompromises of the Constitution. 
Wheri a candidate for the Presidency, he did not 
disguise his opinions, but proclaimed his opposi- 
tion to a Bank of the United States, his unquali- 



fied belief that Congress could not touch the sub- 
ject of slavery in the Slates, and his determina- 
tion, should he be elected, to put his veto upon any 
bill for the abolition of slavery in the District of 
Columbia. These noble declarations were repeat- 
ed in the most solemn manner in his inaugural ad- 
dress. For his devotion to the rights of the South, 
he has deen denounced as the "Northern man 
with Southern principles," and even stigmatized 
on the floor of Congress as a "traitor to the North," 
although his prin^iiples, which are just to us, are 
consistent with the most comprehensive patriotism. 
We have already spoken of the financial policy of 
his Administration. His management of our fo- 
reign relations has been prudent, yet energetic, and 
has probably saved us from a desolating war with 
the greatest power upon earth or sea, while net a 
tittle of our rights as a nation has been relinquish- 
ed. His enemies even are obliged to concede to him 
this merit, and they proved their confidence by 
voting to him the discretionary command of ten 
millions of dollars, and fifty thousand men, because 
they knew that these were safe in such prudent and 
patriotic hands. 

The objections which have been so pertinacious- 
ly urged against this honest and able Republican 
Chief Magistrate are unfounded, or factious or fri- 
volous. The defalcations which have been made 
the subject of so much declamation, are either mutch 
exaggerated, or were chiefly committed before his 
administration, and under a system which he, of 
all others, was most anxious to reform. The ex- 
penditures which have been the pretext of so much 
clamor, were for extraordinary and unavoidable 
purposes, or were voted for by a majority of the 
Opposition, and often against the wi-bes and re- 
monstrances of the Adtninistration, and of its more 
confidential friends in Congress. Even at the last 
session, amidst all this outcry, the appropriations 
were made to exceed ihe estimates by millions. 
The ordinary expenses of the Government have, in 
fact, not been greater, but rather less, than those of 
previous administrations. He has been accused of 
recommending a standing army, when he had not 
seen the details of the bill which is made the pre- 
text of this absurd charge, although, by the omis- 
sion of important words from his message, the con- 
trary is sought to be proved. The measure, too, 
which is so calumniated, although, like all similar 
projects, it is liable to some objections, contains no 
provisions, which, in the slightest degree, furnish a 
foundation for so preposterous a misrepresentation, 
and it was applauded at first by the Opposition 
press, which afterwards discovered that, by gross 
perversion, it might be turned to political account. . 
The objections, too, which have been most insisted 
upon, are directed against those clauses which are 
copied from the existing law, that was pas;.ed in 
the administration of Washington, and re-enacted 
in that of Jeflerson. And this hypocritical clamor 
is raided by men supporting a candidate who has 
repeatedly proposed measures much more extrava- 
gant than the one they now condemn — measures 
which provided for the military education of all 
the youth of the country at the expense of the Fe- 
deral Government, and the training of an immense 
militia corps, six weeks in the year, paying the offi- 
cers and not the privates. The funds required for 



ihese purposes to be raised, if necessary, by addi- 
tional taxes ! 

The Pretic'ent has been assailed for declining to 
set aside the sentence of a court martial composed 
chiefly of distinguished Southern officers, when it is 
not pretended that any injustice was done, and 
xvhen it is admitted that the evidence objected to 
was altogether immaterial to the decision. He was 
condemned in this case for permitting law and jus- 
tice to have their course, by tho^e who were unwil- 
ling or against an appeal to Congress, the only 
legitimatR tribunal for the remedy of ihe grievance, 
thus proving that prejudice, and not justice, was 
the obj ct of his accusers. He has, moreover, 
been charged with taking prepartory steps for a 
system of direct taxation, because he has 
executed the law for taking the census, as pass- 
ed, we believe unanimously by Congress; the por- 
tion which is made the pretext for this silly calum- 
ny having been introduced by a conspicuous mem- 
ber of the Opposition, and adopted without a word 
of disapprobation. And what proves the utter fol- 
ly of the accusation, is the fact, that the marshals 
and their assistants do not take down a single name, 
which must be conclusive to the dullest comprehen- 
sion, that DO assessment, with a view to taxation, 
could have been contemplated. But we have not 
time to notice the whole series of frivolous, falla- 
cious, or factious objections which are brought 
against the principles and measures of one who 
has proved himself altogether worthy of your ap- 
probation and support. Suffice it to say, that our 
opponents are too intelligent to resort to such cavils, 
had they any thing more serious or solid to allege. 

Let us now, in turn examine rapidly the princi- 
ples of the Opposition, and contemplate its candi- 
date! But we are sto])ped at the threshold by the 
fact that no declaration of principles or policy ha? 
been made. The convention, which nominated 
General Harrison, deemed it impolitic to issue aa 
address to the people — a fair inference from which 
is, that it contained materials too heterogeneous to 
reconcile, and opinions too obnoxious to proclaim. 
Following this example, the candidate himself has 
refused to make any declarations for the public 
eye, although his private communications have 
been numerous, and have been appealed to for very 
opposite purposes, in different regions of the coun- 
try. We ask you, fellow-citizen?, if this is a fair 
and honorable course towards the people? If the 
communicaiioHs of a candidate can be U5sd pri- 
vately for electioneering purposes, why should he 
hesitate to publish his sentiments to the world in an 
authentic and unquestionable shape? This would 
put an end to all doubt and cavil. We should be 
spared the degrading spectacle which we behold 
when gentlemen at the South read letters from 
Genural Harrison, to prove that he has nothing in 
common with the Abolitionists; and members of 
Congress and others at the North write letters to be 
shown to the Abolitionists, declaring that they have 
seen, from his own hand, sentiments noli unfavora- 
ble to these dangerous fanatics. 

Smce, then, neither General Harri?on, nor the 
committee which answers for him, will make a 
public authentic declaration of his present princi- 
ples, we are compelled to resort to other means to 
obtain a knowledge of them. It has been proved 



from the record that he spoke in favor of the 
standing army of the elder Adams, which was an 
object of peculiar dread and aversion with the 
early Republicans. He received his first appoint- 
ment from the high toned Federal ruler, as his last 
was bestowed by the son, kindred in principle as 
well as in blood. When charged with Federalism, 
on the floor of the Senate, by John Randolph, who 
asserted it boldly, on his own authority, he admit- 
ted the allegation in part, and but faintly denied 
the rest; although a garbled account of this debate, 
which gives him a decided triumph over the orator 
of Roanoke, has been published among the politi- 
cal documents put forth by his friend*, which he 
has, we would fain hope, inadvertently sanctioned. 
He is certainly pledged to the most obnoxious 
doctrines of the Federal school. His devotion to 
internal improvements, in every variety of form, 
and a protective tariff, was so ardent as to induce 
him to recommend a suspension of the payment of 
the public debt, for the purpose of accumulating a 
surplus, to be applied to their encouragement. So 
ardent was his support of the latter, as to make 
him declare that he woul'-J witness the extremest 
evils predicted from it, before he would consent to 
its abandonment. He proposed, moreover, that, 
with the consent of the Southern States, the nation- 
al revenue should be appropriated to the uncon- 
stitutional object of emancipating their slave^, and 
thus proving his loose and erroneous views of 
the compact which binds these sovereignties to- 
gether. 

We all know how obnoxious was the famous 
Proclamation of Gen. Jackson to the Republicans 
of the South, and many of them were driven by it 
from the ranks of the Administration, in spite of 
the explanations of the President, which in a great 
degree qualified and miiigated its obnoxious senti- 
ments. General Harrison, on the contrary, lauded 
this act of General Jackson, as doing him more 
honor than the victory of New Orleans; and adopted 
its principles, as expounded and exposed by Daniel 
Webster, as the most "eloquent and satisfactory ex- 
positions" of the principles of the Government. 
He voted, indeed, against the prohibition of slavery 
in Mis?ouri, yet in the same session of Congress 
proposed a measure of restriction; and afterwards, 
in the Legislature of Ohio, voted for a resolution 
to instruct its Senators and Representatives to op- 
pose the admission of Territories into the Union 
without this prohibition. He was a decided oppo- 
nent of the election of Gen. Jackson, and an 
equally decided supporter of that of John Q,. 
Adam?, from whom he received the mission to Co- 
lombia, as he had received his first honor from the 
Federal father. 

But supposing his 'awn opinions to be orthodox, 
which they are not, let us inquire into the senti- 
ments of those who support him. The leader of 
Massachusetts Federalism is his right arm, and the 
father of the miscalled American system is his left. 
The advocates of a Bank of the United States are, 
without an exception, his partisans, and look to his 
election as involving the certainty of the re-esta- 
blishment of their "great regulator." All those 
who are devoted to every principle and measure 
which Virginia has ever abhorred, are strenous in 
advocating the election of the nominee of the Har- 



11 



burg Convention. And who are ihose who, in 
that convention, coerced the reluctant delegates 
from the South into the adoption of Gen. Harri- 
son? Abolitionists, or those who were under the 
influence of that traitorous faction, which has pro- 
claimed the defeat of the rejected candidate a^; a 
signal proof that no slaveholder f-hou!d ever again 
occupy the Presidential chair! Do we not know, 
is it not undispued history, that the choice was ac- 
quiesced in with the greatest reluctance by those 
who have since affec'ed an enthusiasm which is as 
insincere as it is sudden? If, then. Gen. Harrison 
owes his selection to opinions and to men adverse 
to the S juth, and to Southern inierevts, will he not, 
if elected, be under the control of those who pre- 
vailed against the reluctantly yielded wishes of the 
Southern dolegation? 

We have already touched upon the fearful sub- 
ject of Abolition. Wherever there is an Aboli- 
tionist who is at the same time a politician; he is a 
decided supporter of the Whig cinJidate. The 
greatest pains have been taken to persuade the 
Aboliiionists that General Harrison is not unfavor- 
able to their views; at least, not so much so as his 
distinguished opponent. For this purpose we 
have had open declarations; and worse still, secret 
communications from politic. ans of influence, even 
in the National Legislature. Wherever the Whig 
party prevails, there Abolition flourishes; wherever 
the Republicans have the sway, it is discoar.iged 
and depressed. Need we point, as proof of the 
former assertion, to Vermont, Connecticut, New 
York, &c.? In the last mentioned Stale, an avow- 
ed Abolitionist is Lieutenant Governor, and laws 
have been lately passed there, by a compact Whig 
majority, which render it impossible for a Southern 
man to recover his fugitive slaves; nay, expose 
him to the penitentiary, should he venture to ap- 
peal to the laws of the United States for the pro- 
tection of his property. On the contrary, in New 
Hampshire, Mniine, Pennsylvania, Ohio, &c. the 
Democracy have proved true to the South, even at 
the hazard of much of their popularity. In the 
Keystone State particularly, not a Democrat can 
be found who is in the slightest degree tainted with 
Abolition, cr who does not regard it with the same 
deteaiation that is felt in the South. 

If we look within the walls of Congres?, the same 
state of things will be found to exist. Every con- 
spicuous Abolitionist there is an equally conspi- 
cuous supporter of General Harrison, including 
Me.'srs. Adams, Slade, Giddings, Gates, Clark, 
Smith, Saltonstall, Ogle, etc. Several of these, 
most distingui>-hed for their devotion alike to Har- 
rison and Abolition, are members of the Central 
Whig Committee, whose duty it is to enlighten the 
Union, including the Southern States, with politi- 
cal information ! Think you, fellow citizens, that 
the election of a candidate who receives such zeal- 
ous support from men so notorious for their devo- 
tion to Abolition, will not encourage and strengthen 
fat pestilential heresy, which already boasts lis 
power of coercing the Opposition into the ad( ption 
of its candidate? This is too serious a matter to 
be made the sport of faction. It involves all that 
is dear to us in life — peace, prosperity, happiness, 
nay, existence itself; and will give these for the 
sake of a mere party triumph, and that, too, at the 



sacriSce of all your cherished principles, and ex- 
pose your highest and latticg interests to the most 
imminent peril. 

It was the declaration of Mr. JeflFerson that the 
"Northern Democracy is the natural ally of the 
South," and the present aspect of parties is a strik- 
ing confirmatifin of that prophetic sentiment. Yet 
th'^re are many among us who are so intent upon 
the transitory objects of party or faction, that they 
spurn from us this natural ally at a most critical 
juncture of afi'airs, nay, treat it as an enemy, and 
strengthen the hands of its, and, consequently, 
their deadly enemy. They would strike down the 
man who has solemnly pledged himself to veto any 
bill wh ch may be passed, and they would substi- 
tute an aspirant, who no^ only refuses to give any 
pledge, but who indicates a purpose to sign any 
bill which Congress may pass. They would strike 
down the man, who, from his local position, at the 
point of danger, is, able and willing to bring us 
friends; and ibey prefer the candidate whose most 
decided friends are the least wiUing to serve us. If 
we repudiate Martin Van Buren, we paralyze his 
and our friends, and we commit our dearest inte- 
rests to the hands of William Henry Harrison's 
friends, who have hitherto betrayed us. If we 
elect Mr. Van Buren, the door is still closed to 
their claim of petition and debate. The country 
is saved from agitation, and the Union from the 
danger of dissolution. But the election of his com- 
petitor throws open the door to petitions and de- 
bates upon the Disirict of Columbia, asd it is 
to this point of the fortress that the artillery of the 
Abolitionists has been hitherto directed, and will 
continue 'o be pointed. Break that rampart down, 
and the Union is gone. The very agitation of such 
a question, if cominued from session to session, 
weakens the bond which unites us. Yet it is this 
very question which Gen. Harrison has in his last 
Carthage address evaded. We cannot admire the 
firmness or the candor of that man who pretends to 
go before the public to meet every question, and yet 
disingenuously slurs over the only one which has 
been, and will continue to be, the source of diffi- 
culty and of danger. Touch the slaves in the Dis- 
trict of Columbia, without the consent of their mas- 
ters, without the consent of all the slaveholding 
States, without engralting the power on the Con- 
stitution — nay, open the door to petition, to debate, 
and to agitation, and this Union may be shaken to 
the centre. But Gen. Harrison seems willing to 
encounter these consequences. 

In his Carthage speech he expatiates upon the 
right of petition, but subsequently seems willing 
to modify it so far as relates to slavery in the States; 
but he says not one syllable about the District of 
Columbia. His silence is most expressive. His 
omission to modify the right of petition in this 
respect, either shows him willing to open the door 
to such petitions, which the South has hitherto suc- 
ceeded in putting to sleep, or it shows his fear of 
offending the Abolitionists by speaking the truth. 
And in this case "cowardice betrays like trea- 
son" — and in either alternative. Gen. Harrisoa 
shows himself unworthy of the confidence of the 
South. But we have not time to dwell upon this 
painful topic. In the space to which we are 



12 



obliged to coafine ourselves, it is impossible even to 
notice all the topics of di.^cussioa. 

There is one feature, however, in the present con- 
test, to which we think it our imperative duty to 
direct your serious attention. It is the attempt, on 
the part of the Opposition to degrade ihe people, 
for the purpose of effecting its party ends. The 
appeals which are addressed to the enlightened free- 
men of America, would be insulting to the most ig- 
norant and depraved portion of the human race. 
Instead of reason, facts, principles, our adversaries 
show their inveterate contempt for the popular in- 
telligence, by th? lowest appeals to the lowest pas- 
sions and prejudices. Should such a course prove 
successful, how ominous for these institutions, 
whose success depends upon the general difTusion 
of intelligence, and an elevated popular spirit ! In 
all ages, the degradation of the people has been the 
certain forerunner of the destruction of their liber- 
ties. When men cease to resp/ect themselves, they 
will have but little regard for the dignified privi- 
leges and duties of self-government. Do you not, 
fellow-citizen:*, feel a blush kindling your cheeks, 
when you witness these revolting practices, which 
disgrace our country and insult our peoplel 
Would you be willing to exhibit such a spectacle to 
the enemies of popular institutions, who already ex- 
ult that under the freest Govermaent upon earth, 
the favor of the people is sought by means which 
would humiliate the most ignorant and depraved 
populace of Europe? Have we gone back, in tead 
of advancing, in civilization? Are you indeed wil- 
ling to become the instruments of your own degra- 
dation? And what renders these practices still more 
criminal and revolting, is the fact, that those who 
resort to them, privately admit that they are en- 
gaged in an unworthy occupation, yet justify them- 
selves by the pretence that the people, to be pleased 
and persuaded, must be cajoled like ciiildren or be- 
sotted like savages. And who, let us ask, are they, 
who suddenly affect such an attachment to popular 
feelings and habits? Are they not they whose 
hearts have never beat with a "pul?-e of popular 
sympathy;" who regard the laboring poor as no 
better than the slaves of the plantations,- who de- 
clare that the "huge paws" of the farmer were 
never made to grasp the statute book? We see 
men who have never darkened the doors of the 
real cottage, exhibiting themselves at political 
meetings gathered in caricature imitations of the 
poor man's dwelling, and pretending to taste his 
homely beverage out of cups formed by the hand 
of nature, with lips yet moisi with the costly wines 
of France and Spain, sparkling in the crystal 
goblet. But no, fe'low-citizens, you are not the 
dupes implied by such miserable arts and contemp- 
tible expedients; and we trust, that your verdict 
upon these disgraceful and degrading practices will 
be so signal as to prevent their repetition hereafter. 
Let those who degrade themselves and insult you 
by such exhibitions, by their log cabins, by their 
affected potations of hard cider, by gourtls and by 
coon skins, by shouting processions of huzza boys; 
let those who first stultify the people in order to se- 
duce them; let those who propagate every variety 
of humbugs, and refuse to appeal to their under- 
standings by manly argument and enlightened 
principles, reap their appropriate reward in the just 



indignation of their country. Let those who thus 
insult you, "stoop" if they will, but not "lO con- 
quer." 

Finally, lei us appeal once more to you, as Re- 
publicans, conscious of your high calling and ex- 
alted privileges, to weigh well ihe consequences in- 
volved in the present contest. We entreat you, 
for your own sakes, and that of your children, to 
prove faithful to your ancient principles, and to 
those who have been faithful to you and to them. 
Heed not the calumnies which assail your ears. 
They are the same which were employed in the 
time of Jefferson and Madison; whose doctrines 
and policy, it was asserted, with like periinacity and 
perverseness, were hostile to order, property, mo- 
rals, and religion. This is the common cry of 
those who are averse to free principles, and resem- 
bles that of the ''throne and altar," which, beyond 
the ocean, serves as a rally against the friends of 
liberty. The Republican party has ever been com- 
posed chiefly of the plain farmers and honest yeo- 
man'-y of the country- Are they less attached to 
order, property, religion, and morals, than the 
classes which are habitually arrayed against them? 
What party, loo, let us ask, has stigmatized itself 
by the gross fraud.s upon popular rights which 
sought to vitiate the elections in Pennsylvania, New 
Jersey and other places — frauds which poison the 
very fountain of liberty itself? It ill become? such 
adversaries to read to the honest Democracy lessons 
of integrity and piety, much less to blacken it with 
such offensive aspersions. Oa this subject we ex- 
press ourselves with warmth, because we feel the 
just indignation which such practices are calculated 
to inspire. 

You are told, also, that our princip'es are hostile 
to credit, which is the life blood of enterprise. Tnis 
accu'-ation is equally unfounded. The credit which 
is supported by a judicious confidence, and is based 
upon intelligence and industry, will always exist, 
e^pecially in afreecountry of unshackled resources. 
It is of spontaneous and irrepressible growth. With 
a feriile soil — vast and navigable rivers — an almost 
boundless coa.st — various productions — inexhausti- 
ble resources, and, above all, industry, energy, and 
liberty, our career to opulence and grea'ness can 
never be long obstructed. How absurd, ho :v irra- 
tional, how blind to thereal causes of national prjs- 
perit)'-, to ascribe our unparalleled progress to a 
spurious system of monopoly, and flimsy, factitious 
credit, which crumbles under us when we most 
need its support; which first stimulates, and then 
exhausts; which cheats us with a false show of 
wealth, and then beggars us in character as well^as 
fortune, which, as has been aptly remarked, is like 
intoxication — strength tt-day, and weakness to- 
morrow. No; we are not opposed to ihe principles 
of true credit, which has a substantial and enduring 
basis, because it is sustained by integrity, prudence, 
foresight, and enterprise. Bat that to which wears 
opposed, is as fatal to legitimate credit as it is to 
solid prosperity, private and public integrity. We 
are indsed hostile to that delusive system of credit, 
or rather discredit, which decoys but tob-tray; 
which exalts but to prostrate; which cruelly sports 
with character, fortune, and the rewards of labor ; 
which places in a few selfish hands the power 
of raising and depressing the prices of all 



aings at pleasure ; which exposes us to a 
uinous alternati-ia of contractions aad ex- 
)ansions of the currency; which seduces our 
)eople from the manly and honorable pursuits 
)f industry, into the doubtful and dangerous paths 
)f speculation ; which makes our Treasury over- 
low to-day, to-morrow leaves it exhausted and dry, 
which makes our corporrations, and, worse yet, 
;overeign States, humble suppliants for loans at all 
he counters of all the kingdoms of Europe; which 
;eeks by a general assumption to visit the conse- 
lacnces of its explodad follies and abortive pro- 
ects upon every laborer and cottage of the country, 
axing the wants and comforts of the industrious 
)oor itiroughout our land, that the brokers of Lon- 
lon and Amsterdam may pocket a premium of mil- 
ions upon loans purchased at a usurious discount, 
bus creating a dire necessity for that very direct 
ax which it pretends lo abhor. We are, we repeat 
:t, hostile to that spurious system of false ciedic 
which would mortgage the whale property and re- 
sources of a great nation; which will prove the in- 
jviiable parent, as it is the creature of a vicious 
oppressive funding sy&tem, and which, if persisted 
in, mujt end in a public debt, the rivdl of that of 
England; a debt which has bound the freest and 
most powerful monarchy upon earth with golden 
or rather paper chains; which has filled her borders 
with pauperism and crime; which has burdened her 
people with charges to the annual amount of hun- 
dreds of millions; which has. made it necessary to 
tax every object of life and dea'h, from the cradle 
lo the coffin; which has armed three millions of her 
subjects with the weapons of rebellion, whiU her 
fairest domain is perpetually on the brink of insur- 
rection; from which there can be no redemption, 
until it shall be swept away by the besom of revo- 
lution ! 

Fellow-citizens: We have thus endeavored, 
calmly and fairly, to portray to you the character 
of the contest which is at present agitating, we 
might say, almost convulsing, our country to its 
remotest limit — and to hold up to your view the 
mighty issues that contest involves. Your just ap- 
preciation of these issues we cannot for a moment 
question; for they are obviously the preservation of 
our beautiful system of cenfederated Republics, the 
pride of every philanthropist, and the hope of the 
oppressed of every region; the renown, the prospe- 
rity of our beloved Commonwealth; the happiness, 
the quiet, the very existence of those scenes in 
which all the highest virtues have their source, 
and where all our fondest feelings cluster. But, 
with every proper confidence in your sagacity to 
estimate, and your firmness to maintain the bles- 
sings of which our free institutions have been hi- 
therto fruitful, we cannot too anxiously warn you 
of the dangers that must ensue from a long enjoy- 
ment of those blessings, andfrom confidence, the off- 
springofyour own unsuspicious rectitude of purpose. 
Tis true, there is a principle in man, which inclines 
him to sympathize with his fellow man; yet it is 
equaily true, that avarice, ambition, or fanaticism, 
can stifle the strongest iHstincts and yearnings 
of nature within him, and impel him to riot and 
to triumph in the mischiefs and misery he has 
accomplished. The history of the world is rife 
with the examples of this melancholy truth, and 



the events of our own short existence as a nation, 
furnish illustrations which cannot be too strongly 
pressed on your attention. The Federal Govern- 
ment had scarcely been brought into operation, be- 
fore the spirit of encroachment commenced its 
machinations against the rights of the States, and 
against that freedom and perfect equality of right 
arnoEgst the people, which ensure their intellectual 
and moral elevation, as well as their political and 
social happiness. Under the au-pices of the eider 
Adams, these usurpations advanced with an au- 
dacity which drove our people to the very verge of 
revolution. At this point of endurance, the insulted 
Democracy of the country, marshalled by Jefifer- 
son, Madison, and other worthies, aroused them- 
selves to the vindication of their rights, and pros- 
trated Federalism in the dust. The trophies of its 
defeat were the integrity of the Constitution, the 
restoration of the rights of the States and of the 
people, so far as the injuries inflicted upon these 
by the assaults of Federalism could be repaired. 
But Federalism, although thus signally over- 
thrown and driven from the field, has failed not, 
upon any hope of advantage, however delusive, to 
renew its attacks, and its burning desire for power, 
rendered more intense by delay and disaster, now 
impels it to the conflict with a ferocit/ of feeling 
and manner heretofore unexampled — to the same 
conflict in interest and object, fellow-citizens, which 
was waged against the Democracy, during the ad- 
ministration of Jefferson, IVIadison, and Jackson; 
but to one far more formidable in its array, be- 
cause of the unholy alliance contracted by the ene- 
my, and of the foul defections which have occur- 
red in the Southern camp. The enemies of De- 
mocracy have not scrupled to call to their aid the 
fanaticism of Abolition; and what would seem to 
startle the belief, and should arouse the indignation 
of every man who loves his country and his home, 
have associated with those who preach a crusade 
against the rights and the safely of the Southern 
people, citizens of Southern slaveholding Stales. 
Against a combination, then, thus hostile to every 
principle consecrated in our afl"ections — hostile to 
our very existence as a people, we now present to 
you our earnest and solemn appeal. With such a 
combination, we believe there can be no truce — 
no compromise. That its predominance, or 
any connection with it, must be fatal to the Union, 
fatal to liberty, fatal lo peace. We conjure 
you, then, that with an unanimity which no wile 
or stratagem shall divide, with an energy which 
neither threatenicgs nor violence shall paralyze, 
you will come forward to the rescue of the Consti- 
tution, to the preservation of the Union, with all 
the blessings it has wrought and is calculated to 

ensure to the protection of our families and our 

homes. We would encourage you in this noble 
work by the assurance that the tidings we receive 
from our Democratic brethren in other States is of 
the most cheering nature; they call upon us to be 
onward in our march, and say to us as brethren 
that they will advance with an equal pace— and to 
these our brethren we would echo back our resolu- 
tion and our well-grounded belief of success in the 
Democratic watch-words, UNION, LIBERTY, 
AND THE CONSTITUTION ! In fine, fellow- 
citizens, from this spot, almost at the very grave of 



the illustrions Jefferson, the author of the immortal 
Declaration of his country's Independence, and the 
Father of the Democracy, we would solemnly 
pledge ourselves (and entreat you to unite in the 
sacred obligation) to every effjrt which patriotism 
and duty can inspire, to shield our beloved Vjrjinia 
from the opprobrium of surrendering those princi- 
ples which have given lustre to her name, and en- 
shrined her in the love and veaeralion of every 
friend of free Government. 

Fellow-citizens ! we have spoken: it is for you 
to decide ! 



(Paper accompanying the Address.) 
THE CURRENCY— BANK OF THE UNITED STATES. 

Money being u^ed as the measure of value be- 
tween exchangeable commodities, it is deemed es- 
sential, in all well regulated Governments, to keep 
it and its representative steady and uniform. As 
in the case of weights and measures, it would be 
inconvenient, and even impracticable, for the com- 
munity to calculate accorately, in their dealings 
with one another, the value of what they sell or buy, 
without some fixed standard. The Congress of the 
United Staies, as was their duty, have fixed the re- 
lative values of gold and silver; and the paper cur- 
rency should at all times be made to conform to ihe 
standard of those metals. When, from untoward 
circumstances, the paper currency becomes depre- 
ciated, by becoming inconvertible, the producer, the 
merchant, and the consumer, who have their sepa- 
rate employments to occupy their time and atten- 
tion, cannot be informed of the various fluctuations 
which daily occur, and they must consequently be 
subject to great inconvenience, and often lo positive 
loss; and the dealers in money and exchanges, 
whose business it is to understand this matier, are 
the only persons who profit by the inequalities in 
the estimated valae of the circulating medium. No 
matter what may be the depreciation of bank notes 
or other paper currency from the specie standard, 
it would be of little importance, if it were fixed 
ahd permanent; because prices would conform to 
the degree of that depreciation, as in the case of a 
debasement of the coins: but against a fluctuating 
and variable currency, no prudence or precaution 
can guard. According to the State Rights doctrine, 
the remedy for the evil is, that the several States 
shall insist that all issues of circulating paper un- 
der their authority shall be kept up to the value of 
sold and silver, by its immediate convertibility into 
coin; and until that is done and permanently and 
universally established, it is unreasonable to expect 
the Federal Government to forfeit its credit by re- 
ceiving the public dues in any other than the legal 
currency, which it is bound to pay over to the pub- 
lic creditors. Those who hold this doctrine main- 
tain that the Federal Government has no authority, 
under the limitations of the Constitution, to grant 
charters or acts of incorporation to any set of in- 
dividuals, for their own exclusive benefit, and that 
there is an abundance of gold and silver in the coun- 
try to defray the necessary expenses of the Govern- 
ment.when economically administcred,without inter- 
fering with the right of the States to incorporate bank- 
ing companies, with power to emit a convertible pa- 
per medium on their own credit. There is, however, 



another class of politicians in the country, who are 
in favor of extending the powers of the Federal 
Government over all an'! every subject of domestic 
concern, so as to render it, to all intents and pur- 
poses, an unlimited and consolidated Government, 
and the CHIEF of this clan is Mr. Daniel Web- 
ster, who seems to have taken the currency of the 
country under his especial protection. This gentle- 
man leaves the impress of talent and ingenuity on 
every thing that emanates from his great mind. As 
a dialeciiciaa he is not surpassed by any of his 
contemporaries either at home or abroad. He can 
take either side of a question, and make the 
worse appear the better cause. He can con- 
found his auditors by his sophistry or per- 
suade them by his plausibily. The ablest speech 
that appeared against a high tariff, was made by 
him wtiilst he was a member of the House of Re- 
presentatives, from the city of Bi ston. It abound- 
ed in the soundest maxim* of political economy, 
and when he was translated to the Senate, he took 
the opposite side of that question. Whatever may 
have been the motive of his conversion, his ability 
as a debater was equally conspicuous in both cai-e^. 

Party predilections and prejudices produce won- 
ders, as is fully exemplified by the political move- 
ments of the time.*, and prebably no one fes s 
their influence more s'rongly than Mr. Webster. 
Nurtured and steeped in the old Federal doctrines 
of the straightestsect, a partizan of the Essex Junto 
and of the Hirtford Convention, he has adhered 
to them with a peninaciiy not to be exceed- 
ceeded. Attached to a concentration of power in 
the Federal Government, he was naturally a sup- 
porter of a great National Bank; but when Mr. 
Madison, in a moment of alarm about the de- 
rangement of the currency in 1816, yielded to his 
advisers and abandoned his own unanswerable ar- 
guments against the constitutionality of such a 
corporation, so strong was the hwsiility of Mr. 
Webster to the then administration, that he actually 
opposed the establishment of a Bank, and, for the 
time, became a hard money man as to the revenue 
according to the true reading of the Con.-titution; 
and now, as an ofiset to Mr. Van Buren's recom- 
mendation, he lauds Mr. Madisoa for the only 
weak act of his political life. 

This gentleman is the Atlas who is to bear on his 
shoulders "the Hero of North Bend" from his seat 
on the banks of the Ohio to the Presidential chair 
on the banks of the Potomac; and then, doubtless, 
as a reward for his labors, is to be made General 
Harrison's Prime Minister. Yet some of the 
Whigs of Virginia are extremely sensitive and 
even get angry when it is intimated that their can- 1 
didate is a Federalist. It requires no great pro-i 
phet to foretell what will be the course of the new | 
Administration under such auspice.s, should thepo-f 
litical storm which has been raised by the active [ 
political leaders of the Opposition, drive the peo- 
ple to seek for safety under their protection. It' 
will realize the fable of the sheep and the wolves, i 

Mr. Webster, in his Saratoga speech, says: 
"There are those who think these vast popular 
meetings are got up by efl'ort; but I say that no ef- 
fort can get them up and no effort can keep them 
down." Why, then, are such wondrous exer- 
tions Bsed to get thera up by the leaders of the 



party? By whom are they planned and prepared? 
Who traverses different States to attend and ha- 
rangue at these meetings? With whom did the 
coveniion at Harrisburg originate? The great 
meetings at Baltimore, at Nashville, and other 
places, with all their processions, pomp, parade, 
and pageantry, and lavish expenditure of money 
in feasts, flags, emblems, mottoes, and badge>? 
Were all these the mere spontaneous risings of 
the people? Mr. Webster may say so, but does he 
believe it? 

After a fine figure about the human system, the 
blood, the head, the heart, the hand, and all the 
members — about paralysis, numbness, and death, 
he says the main cause of the disasters of the times 
"is the disordered state of the Treasury." Has 
not the orator mistaken the effect for the cause? 
How stands the case in reality? After the pay- 
ment of the public debt under the administration 
of General Jackson, the Treasury was overflow- 
ing, and to prevent a waste of public money on 
useless objects, thirty millions of surplus were dis- 
tributed among the States, of which no part has 
been repaid. The failure of some of the banks to 
pay their debts to the Government — the inability of 
many of the importing merchants to discharge their 
bonds — the great reduction ia the receipts from 
impost — the diminished sales of the public lands — 
these combined causes crippled the Treasury, and 
rendered it necessary to resort to the credit of the 
United States to enable the Government to carry 
on the ordinary operations, and to supply the heavy 
appropriations during an expensive Indian war. 
In the midst of this difllculty, for which the Admi- 
nistration were in no way responsible, the banks, 
in consequence of the excess of importations over 
the exports, the great indebtedness to Great Britain, 
and the conduct of the Bank of England in sud- 
denly destroying the credit of "the great American 
houses," attended by a continual drain of gold and 
silver, were compelled to suspend specie payments. 
Under these circumstances, President Van Buren 
very properly convened Congress to provide the 
ways and means to conduct the operations of the 
Government. In his first message he detailed all 
the circumstances, and proposed an emission of 
Treasury notes to meet the deficiency of the reve- 
nue; and foreseeing the danger of collecting the 
public dues through the agency of the banks, 
whose paper began to depreciate from the moment 
of suspension, he committed the unpardonable sin 
of recommending a separation of the funds of the 
Government from the funds of the banks. The 
Government was bound by every principle of ho- 
nesty aad good faith, to difcharge the debts it had 
contracted, and was contracting, in a medium cqai- 
valent to specie, and how was this to be done 
without maintaining a sound currency for the pur- 
poses of the Government? All payments into the 
Treasury must, under the express terms of the 
Constitution, be uniform throughout the United 
States, and what other medium than specie, or 
public securities of the UnitedStates, would be uni- 
form, while the banks were in a state of suspen- 
sion? There were eight or nine hundred banks of 
circulation in the country, the value of whose 
Dotes was in a continual state of depreciation and 
fluctuation, varying from ten to fifty per cent. 



The Government then had no option in the case. 
The importations being much dimini hed, the land 
sales having almost c§ased, and the banks and the 
mercqants unable to pay their debts to the Go- 
vernment, it was necessary to resort to temporary 
loans, in the shape of Treasury notes, to keep up 
the revenue, and they being always receivable for 
public dues, have maintained a value equal to 
specie, and the public faith has been fully sustain- 
ed. Still Mr. Webster unblushiogly asserts that 
"the main cause of all our difficulties and disasters, 
is the disordered state of the Treasury." With 
how much more truth may it be asserted that any 
temporary deficiency in the Treasury has been the 
effect of over-action and excessive dealings by the 
community, through the agency of inordinate bank- 
ing, beth in the United States and in Great Britain? 
Had Mr. Webster the patience to await the opera- 
tion of the Independent Treasury,he would probably 
find that as the country recovers from "debility," 
produced by excess, it will feel all the enjoyments 
of renovated strength from that simple and saluta- 
ry remedy. With our dear bought experience, we 
shall avoid, for ^a time at least, the pleasures of 
over-indulgence, and with the aid of a bountiful 
providence, soon be restored to perfect health. 
While the country is recovering her natural ener- 
gies, under this innocent regimen, Mr. Webster 
tells assembled multitudes that the malady is incu- 
rable, without a change of treatment, and a change 
of doctors too. When Harrison and Webster 
shall be called in, they will doubtless prescribe their 
grand nostrum— a National Bank— a bank of fifty 
millions capital — made up chiefly of State bonds 
owned abroad, and of foreign money — chartered 
for fifty years, or, in effect, in perpetuity, 
a bank to wield the money of the people as 
well as of the stockholders — with a high tariff 
to fill and keep full its coffers, and an influ- 
ence in war and in peace, such as the Roths- 
childs are said to have over some of the Go- 
vernments of Europe. No distributions of surplus 
among the States will then be heard of— but a great 
central moneyed power will be established in the 
North, which will drain and draw around it all the 
products of the labor and soil of the South; which 
will give omnipotent power to the Government 
when it acts with it, or paralyze it when in opposi- 
tion; which may foster such State banks as be- 
come its satellites, or crush those those which act 
with independence; which may expand and contract 
the circulating medium as may best suit its cupi- 
dity without regard to the interest of the commu- 
nity. And it is gravely and confidently proposed 
that this machine shall be constructed under the ri- 
diculous pretext of regulating the currency, to sup- 
plant the plain, constitutional scheme of collecting 
and disbursing the revenus of the Uni ed States by 
officers amenable to the laws and to the people — a 
scheme which leaves to the States the power and 
authority to regulate their own institutions as they 
may seem proper, and allows the people to receive 
and day each other in whatsoever medium they 
may mutually agree on. Already are our Southern 
towns near the seaboard advancing under the ex- 
isting system. They will soon begin to import for 
themselves, and become ship owners to transport 
our own productsj but whenever a great ceatral 



preponderating Bauk shall be established and sus- 
tained by the public money of the United States, 
Jhey must inevitably wither and decay— the 
great producing States will become but the tributa- 
ries of New York or Philadelphia. We of the 
South have been kept down for fifty years 
by artificial means and Governmental contriv- 
ances. The funding system and the first Bank 
of the United States drew the moneyed capi- 
from the agricultural to the commercial States. 
The tarifi" followed, to subject us to the ma- 
nufacturing interest of the East, and when we 
are just about to shake ofi" thcie shackles, 
shall ihey again be riveted on us at the bidding of 
Daniel Webster? In the name ef justice, if the 
Constitution is to be violated on the plea of expe- 
diency, by granting corporations, let Congress au- 
thorize at feast tkree independent banks in prefe- 
rence to one great monopoly with difi'erent branch- 
es. Let us not not be entirely sacrificed. One in 
the North, one in the West, and one in the Souih, 
all under the same regulations, will be equally 
competent to create and maintain a uniform cur- 
rency, and will equally serve to keep in check the 
issues of the State banks in their respective quar- 
ters of the country; and what will be of still more 
consequence, will serve to keep each other in check. 

President Van Buren is no enemy to the pru- 
dent use of paper credit, and a well regulated sys- 
tem of State bank?; but as 3, patriot and a states- 
man, he has portrayed the evils arising from that 
excess in their operations, which leads to a dan- 
gerous, bloated currency, and a dependence on fo- 
reign countries. He is unwilling that the fiscal 
concerns of the General Government shall be sub- 
ject to the vicissitudes incident to a great number 
of banks over which Congress have no control; and 
to avoid that evil, he proposes a dissolution of the 
connection. This is the head and front of his of- 
fending. When the several States shall render 
their bank currency equal t& specie, by making it 
at all times convertible, we shall hear no more of 
the senseless clamor of one currency for the Go- 
vernment, and another for the people. The State 
banks may then be used occasionally by the Go- 
vernment, as by individuals, for the mere purposes 
of remittances from one quarter of the country to 
another; and when it shall once be understood that 
the people of any State which allows a depreciated 
currency, like individuals in bad credit, pay more 
for what they buy, and receive less for what they 
sell in the proportion of that depreciation, the pro- 
per corrective will soon be applied, and the contro- 
versy be at an end. 

The abuses on the part of the great contractors, 
to which Mr. Webster refers, are grossly exagge- 
rcted by him. It is well understood by the compe- 
titors for public contracts, that they are to be paid 
in good money, and the rates at which they are 
taken are proportionably low. Those contractors 
may occasionally impose on the laborers they em- 
ploy, by paying them in depreciated currency, as 
they may cheat them ia any other way; but such 



laborers as are intelligent and provident generally 
know the difference between the value of the pa- 
per ihey receive and of specie, and charge accord- 
ingly for their work. It is not in the power of the 
Government, in all cases, to provide against fraud 
and imposition among individuals, nor is it its 
duty. 

With regard to the wages of labor, that is not 
regutated by Government in any free country. Mr. 
Webster related a story at Saratoga about a con- 
versation with some man, "half fisherman and 
half farmer," which probably amused apart of his 
audience, but could not impose on the intelligent 
part for a moment. The nominal wages of labor 
may depend on the condition of the currency where 
the work is performed; but the r«ai wages depend 
on supply and demand. Labor is but a commodity, 
bought and sold like merchandize in the market. 
The laboter sells his skill and services to those 
who will pay the highest price for them; and 
the Government has no more to do with the 
bargain, than it has with any other traffic be- 
tween individuals; but Mr. Webster, in his zeal 
to condemn the Administration, would have them 
to intermeddle with every private transaction, and 
when they should do so, he would be the first to 
blame them. He would make them responsible 
even for the low prices produced by a redundancy 
of crops and the absence of foreign demand. He 
would have them to regulate the currency, the ex- 
changes, the wages of laber, and every thing else, 
instead of leaving these things to the natural ope- 
rations of trade, and his great lever is a National 
Bank. But what is still more remarkable is, that 
the banking interest generally is in favor of such 
an establishment. The State banks, like the frogs 
in the fable, are calling out for a king to govern 
them, forgetting that when the stork comes, their 
very existence is in danger. The great desideratum, 
however, is the public money to give a National 
Bank the requisite power. Why else will not the 
United States Bank of Pennsylvania satisfy Mr. 
Webster and his party? It has the same nominal 
capital it possessed when authorized by Congress, 
with more extensive corporate privileges, and was 
rendered stronger, we were told from high authority, 
by getting clear of the Government as a trouble- 
some partner. No, no. The Federal Whig party 
want a great political machine, and Mr. Webster 
ir to be the chief engineer. Are the people ripe 
for this measure, and especially the people of the 
South? Just as the political horizon is becoming 
brighter and brighter every day, a powerful com- 
bination as to talents and wealth is formed. Im- 
patient under the mild and gentle rays of a Re- 
publican Administration, they are endeavoring to 
raise the clouds of discontent among the people, 
that they may ride on the whirlwind and direct the 
storm. This is their aim; and if their work be 
consummated, how long this Union will hold toge- 
ther, unless bound by chains of iron, instead of be- 
ing cemented by the afiections of the people, no 
man can tell. 



REPORTS OF COMMITTEES. 



REPORT FROM THE COMMITTEE ON COUNTY 
ORGANIZATION. 

[■Unanimously adopted by the CoBTention.] 

The committee, to whom was eatrusted the duty 
of preparing a plan for a general county organza- 
tion, are fully aware of the deep importance of the 
subject which has been committed to their conside- 
ration. They have bestowed upon it all the care 
and deliberation which the limited time that has 
been allotted to them would permit them to exert. 
They feel that the exercise of the elective franc'aise 
is one of the highest attributes of a sovereign peo- 
ple, and that its purity should be guarded with 
all the sleepless vigilance of men who know 
their rights, and, knowing, dare maintain them. 
The right of suffrage is a right inestimable to 
freemen. It has been guarantied to every citi- 
zen in the State who has, in the language of 
the Bill of Rights, "sufficient evidence of per- 
manent common interest wiih and attachment to 
the community." It is a right which, when properly 
protected and guarded, comprehends within itself 
the power to preserve and maintain every other 
right — It is the foundation stone of the Republican 
edifice — It is the fountain from which flow the great 
blessings of a free country. Shake that corner 
stone, and the whole building may crumble in ruin 
upon our heads ! Corrupt that fountain, and you 
poison liberty at its very source. It is that for- 
midable power which affords security against tyran- 
ny and oppression; which enables the people to hurl 
from an undeserved eminence, all unfaithful ser- 
vants, who abuse their confidence and pervert the 
authority with which they are invested, to promote 
some unworthy object, or to advance an unholy am- 
bition. It presents the opportunity and the occasion 
to discountenance profligate politicians, and to re- 
ject those ofiicers whose principles are in conflict 
with the wishes and the interests of a majority of 
the people: whilst it enables a liberal, a free, and 
an enlightened people to sustain, encourage, and 
cheer on those faithful servants who devote their 
talents, their time, their lives, to the service of their 
country. It bestows those rewards and honors 
which, while they distinguish and elevate the indi- 
vidual, endow him with the power of promoting 
the interests and glory of the nation. What duty, 
then, is more sacred in the eyes of every patriot, of 
every party, who has the welfare of his country at 
heart, than to protect this right in all its purity, and 
to guard its exercise with the most scrupulous cir- 
cumspection? It is their duty to see that every citi- 
zen, who is authorized by the Constitution and the 
laws to exercise it, shall not be denied the privi- 
lege, and that those to whom it has been denied 
should not have it illegally extended to them. If 
this pure fountain, indeed, be polluted, we may 



tremble for the Republic. Corruption will indeed 
seize upon the vitals of our system; but if an ho- 
nest, upright, conscientious discharge of our duties 
as citizens be continually practised, our Govern- 
ment will continue healthy, vigorous, and enlight- 
ened. It will remain a model lor the imitation of 
the world, and one of the noblest monuments to 
future ages of the wisdom of the present — a monu- 
ment more worthy of reverence than the solid 
Pyramids of Egypt, or the crumbling Coliseum of 
Rome. 

Your committee have thought it proper, there- 
fore, to present ia a conci>e view the qualifications 
which give the right to vote in this Commonwealth; 
and the disqualifications which forbid its exercise, 
that every individual may judge for himself what 
are his rights and may know how to assert them; 
and that all may know when an illegal vote is 
polled and when a legal one is rejected. They 
have deemed it their duty to present also the regu- 
lations for the reception of votes, and the penalties 
imposfd upon those who vote illegally, and upon 
those who illegally conduct the election, that every 
man may be able to watch the vicious, to detect 
the guilty, and to bring down upon his head the 
punishment which the law prescribes and his of- 
fence may justly merit. 

Your committee have carefully extracted frora 
the Constitution and laws the various provisions 
touching the subject, and have placed them in 
such classification as they deem most intelligible, 
taking care to distinguish each qualification by 
placing it by itself. First, then — 

FREEHOLDERS UNDER THE OLD CONSTITUTION. 

1. Every while male citizen of the State, resident 
therein, who is twenty one years old and upwards, 
being possessed, or whose tenant for years, at will 
or at sufferance, is possessed of an estate of free- 
hold at the least in twenty five acres ef land, with a 
house, the superficial content of the foundation 
whereof is twelve feet square, or equal to that 
quantity, and a plantation thereon, and (unless the 
title shall have come to him by descent, devise, 
marriage, or marriage settlement) having been so 
possessed six months, shall have the right to vote ia 
the county in which the land lieth. If such land, 
being in one entire parcel, lie in several counties, 
the holder shall vote in that county wherein the 
house standeth only. 

2. Every such citizen possessed, or whose tenant 
for years, at will or at sufferance, is possessed of 
an estate in freehold in fifty acres of unimprtvad 
land, and (unless the title shall have ccme to hioa 
by descent, devise, marriage, or marriage settle- 
ment) having been so possessed six months, shall 
have the right to vote in the coanty in which the 
land lies. And if the fifty acres, being one entiie 



18 



parcel, lie in several counties, the holder shall vote 
in thai county wherein the greater part rf the land 
lies only. 

3. Every sitcfc citizen possessed, or whose tenant 
for years, at will or at suffercnce, is possessed of 
an estate of freehold in a lot or part of a lot of land 
in a city or town established by act of Assembly, 
■with a house thereon, the superficial contents of the 
foundation whereof is twelve feet square, or equal 
to that quantity, and (unless the title shall have 
come to him by descent, devise, marriage, or mar- 
riage settlement) having been so possessed six 
months, shall be entitled to vote in the city, town, 
borough or county in which the lot or part of a lot 
of land lies. 

FBEEHOLDERS UNDER THE AMENDED CONSTITUTION. 

4. Every such citizen, being possessed, or whose 
tenant for years, at will or at sufferance, is pos- 
sessed of an estate of freehold in land of the value 
of twenty-Jive doliirs, and jo assessed to be, if any 
assessment thereof be required by law, and (unless 
the title shall have come to him by descent, devise, 
marriage, or marriage settlement) having been so 
possessed for six months, shall be entilled to vote in 
the county, city, town, or borough wherein such 
land shall lie. And if the land lies in several 
counties, and be insufficient to enliile him to vote 
in each, then he shall vote where the greater part of 
the land lies. 

TENANTS IN COMMON, JOINT TENANTS AND PARCENERS. 

5. Every such citizen being possessed, as tenant 
in common, joint tenant or parcener, of an interest 
in or share of land, and having an estate of free- 
hold therein, such interest or share being of the 
value cf twenty five dollars, and so assessed to be, if 
any assessment thereof be required by law, and 
(unles.s his title shall have come to him by descent, 
devise, marriage, or marriage settlement) having 
been so possessed for six months, shall be entitled 
to vote in the county, city, town, or borough in 
which such land shall lie. If the land lies in seve- 
ral counties, and be insufficient to entitle him to 
vote in each, then he shall vote where the greater 
fart of the land lies. 

In right of land held by parceners, joint tenants, 
or tenants in common, qualified to exercise the 
right of suflfrage under the old Constitution and 
laws, but one vote shall be given by all the holders 
capable of voting, who may be present, and agree 
to vote for the same candidate or candidates, un- 
less the quantity of land, in case of partition, be 
sufficient to entitle every holder present to vote 
separately, or unless some one or more of the hold- 
ers may lawfully vote in right of another estate or 
estates, in the same county, in which case the others 
may vote, if holding solely, they might have voted. 
In case of two or more tenants in common, joint 
tenants or parceners, in possession, reversion or 
remainder, having an interest in land, the value 
whereof shall be insufficient to entitle them all to 
vote, and who, not being qualified to exercise the 
light of suffrage according to the former Constitu- 
tion and laws, have had that right conferred upon 
them by the present Constitution; their vote or votes 
stall in such case be given in manner following: If 
iks value oft he land be sufficient to entitle them to 



one vote only, the same shall be given by all the 
said tenants in common, joint tenants or parce- 
ners, capable of voting, who may be present, and 
agree to vote for the same candidate or candidates. 

If the value of the land be sufficient to entitle 
them to more than one vote, the votes to which 
they are entitled shall be given by all the said te- 
nants in common, joint tenants or parceners, capa- 
ble ot voting, who may be present, and agree as to 
the candidate or candidates to whom the said votes 
shall be given. No one of any number of such 
tenants in common, joint tenants or parceners, 
shall give more than one vote at the same election; 
Bor shall any greater number of votes be given by 
such tenints in common, joint tenants, or parce- 
ners, than the value of the undivided land held by 
them may entitle them to give, according to the 
Constitution. 

When a vote or votes shall have been given as 
aforesaid, by such tenants in common, joint te- 
nants or parceners, the whole of the said tenants 
in common, joint tenants or parceners, not having 
been present, and not having agreed to the said 
vote or votes, if he or ihey, who were absent at the 
giving of the said vote or votes, should afterwards 
appear at the said election, before the taking of the 
votes is at an end, and to the officer conducting the 
said election, object to the said votes as given, the 
same shall be stricken from the poll. 

When an election shall be held at different 
places in the same county, and such tenants in 
common, joint tenants, or parceners entitled to only 
one vote, shall be polled at different places, and for 
different candidates, their votes shall be stricken 
from the polls. 

When an election shall be held at different places 
in the same county, and such tenants in common, 
joint tenants or parceners, entitled to give more 
votes than one, shall give their votes at different 
places, and in opposition to each other, the said 
votes shall be stricken from the polls, if it shall ap- 
pear that all the said tenants in common, joint 
tenants or parceners, did not agree, before such 
votes were polled, to whom they should be given. 

In case of two or more of such tenants in com- 
mon, joint tenants or parceners in possession, re- 
version, or remainder, having interest in land, the 
value whereof shall be insufficient to entitle them 
all to vote, if some one or more of them may law- 
fully vote in right of another estate or estates in 
the same county, the others may vote in the same 
manner as if he or they holding such other estate 
in the same county had no interest whatever in 
the undivided land belonging to the said tenants in 
common, joint tenants or parceners. 

REVERSIONERS OR REMAINDERMEN. 

6. Every such citizen being entitled to a rever- 
sion or vested remainder in fee, expectant on an 
estate for life or lives, in land of the value of fifty 
dollars, and so assessed to be, if any assessment 
thereof be required by law; and (unless his title 
shall have come to him by descent, devise, mar^ 
riage, or marriage settlement) having been so en- 
titled for six months, shall be entitled to vote in the 
county, city, town, or borough, in which such land 
sh^ lie. If the land lies ia several counties and 



19 



be insufficient to entitle him to vote in each, thea 
he shall vote where the greater part of the land 
lies. 

LEASEHOLDERS. 

7. Every such citizen who shall own aad be him- 
self in actual occupation of a leasehold estate, with 
the evidence of title recorded two months before he 
shall offer to vote, of a term originally not less than 
five years, of the annual value or rent of twenty dol- 
lars, shall be entitled to vote in the county, city, 
town, or borough, iu which the land shall lie. If 
the land lies in several counties and be insufficient 
to entitle him to vote in each, then he shall vote 
where the greater part of the land lies. 

HOUSE KEEPERS, HEADS OP FAMILIES, AND TAX- 
PAYERS. 

8. Every such citizen, who, for twelve months 
next preceding, has been a house-keeper and head 
of a family within the county, city, town, borough, 
or election district where he may offer to vote, and 
shall have been assessed with a part of the reve- 
nue of the Commonwealth within the preceding 
year, and actually paid the same, shall be entitled 
to vote in the county, city, town, or borough 
wherein such house-keeper and head of a family 
lives. 

VOTERS IN WILLIAMSB0EG AKD NORFOLK BOROaCH. 

9. Every such citizen, having such a freehold in 
the city of Williamsburg or Borough of Norfolk, 
as will qualify him to vote for delegates to repr*- 
sent the county, and every such citizen, who shall 
be a housekeeper, and shall have resided for six 
months in the said city or borough, and shall be 
possessed of a visible estate of the value of one 
hundred and sixty-six dollars and sixty-six cents at 
least, or shall actually have served as an apprentice 
to some trade within the said city or boroush for the 
term of five years, and shall have obtained a certifi- 
cate of such service from the court of Huntings, 
■under the common seal of the city or borough, 
shall be qualified to vote in the said city or borough 
respectively. 

There is one important provision of the law, to 
which your committee would here invite attention, 
as it materially affects the rights of that class of 
voters who vote as house-keepers, heads of families, 
€ind tax-payers. 

It is provided, that when any person shall have 
paid to the sheriff, or his deputy, any money on 
account of any sum due from him for revenue tax 
and for county levy, without specifying for which 
it shall have been paid, it shall be the duty of the 
sheriff, or his deputy, to credit such person foi said 
money, or so much thereof as may be necessary 
for the purpose, as paid for his revenue tax, before 
he shall credit him for any part thereof as paid for 
his county levy. This provision was intended to 
enable those who had thus paid money to have it 
applied to the liquidation of their taxes, and there- 
by extend to them the privilege of voting, if they 
possessed the other requisites of the law, and was 
designed to deprive the sheriffs of the power which 
in some cases they had exerted, of disfranchising 
voters, by crediting the individual with the pay- 
jment made as a payment of the county levy, and 
ireturning him delinquent for his revenue tax. 



DISaUALiriCATIONS. 

Your committee having set forth the various 
quaMcations, now proceed to show the disqualifi- 
cations, which forbid the exercise of the right of 
suffi-age. They are few and simple. The Consti- 
tution and laws both provide that the right of suf- 
frage shall not be exercised by any person of un- 
sound mind, or who shall be a pauper, or a non-com' 
missioned ojficer, soldier, seaman, or marine, in the 
service of the UnUed States, or by any person con- 
victed of any infamous offence. And the law makes 
a further provision, that it shall not be exercised by 
snch as have refussd to give assurance of fidelity to 
the Commonwealth. 

These several provisions, your committee be- 
lieve, embrace all the qualifications and di?qual;fi- 
cations provided by the Constitution and laws upon 
the subject of the right of suffrage. 

Your committee will now inquire what are the 
provisions regulating the manner of voting for 
Electors of Presudent and Vice President of the 
United States. 

The law provides that every voter shall vote for 
twenty-three electors, one from each of the electo- 
ral districts. It is made the duty of the commis- 
sioners who conduct the election, to receive of 
each person whom they shall adjudge to be enti- 
tled to vote in his county or corporation, a paper 
containing the names of twenty-three persons, for 
whom such person shall vote as electors; on the back 
of the paper shall be written the name of the per- 
son voting; which person, however, before his vote 
shall be polled, shall also declare viva voce for whom 
it Is that he votes as electors, which he may be al- 
lowed to do either by repeating the name of each of 
the twenty-three individuals voted for, or by any 
other intelligible designation of them collectively; 
and as the voles are given, it shall be the duty of 
the said commissioners to take an exact poll of the 
names of all persons so veting, under the names of 
the persons voted for. And the right is given to 
any person entitled to vote in a county wherein se- 
parate polls are authorized, to vote at either place 
of election in the county he may prefer. 

The next and last question your committee deem 
it important to investigate is, what provisions have 
been made to prevent improper voting. 

It is made the duty of the officer conducting the 
election to refuse to entfr on the poll the vote of 
any person who may offer to vote, unless he be- 
lieves such person to be qualified to vote, or unless 
such person shall take an oath, (which the officer is 
authorized to administer,) or shall make affirmation; 
that he believes himself to be duly qualified to vote, 
of which oath or affirmation, a note shall be made 
in the poll book, opposite, referring to the name of 
the person swearing or affirming; and the making 
such oath or affirmation falsely shall be perjury. 

The names of electors offering to be polled, but 
refusing to make such oath or affirmation, shall be 
entered in the poll books in separate lists, with the 
names of the candidates for whom they voted, and 
shall be added to the poll, if, upon scrutiny, the 
votes be justified. 

It is provided tbat no elector shall vote more than 
once in the same election; nor shall he be admitted 
to poll a second time at one and the same election, 



£0 



althotigh at the first time he shall not have voted 
for as many candidates as by law he might have 
voted for; and if any person shall vote a second 
time, or shall claim and exercise the right of suf- 
faage in consequence of having paid a part of the 
revenue of the Commonwealth with which he may 
have been, by his own procurement, falsely as- 
sessed, each and every such person shall, for his 
offence, forfeit and pay to the Commonwealth, for 
the benefit of the literary fund, the sum of thirty- 
three dollars and thirty -ihree cents, reco;rerable 
by motion of the Superior or Inferior Court of 
Law held for the county, city, town, or borough, in 
which the offence is committed, in the name and 
on behalf of the President and Directors of the Li- 
terary Fund. 

Ii is further provided, that if it shall appear to 
the Commissioner appointed by the Governor, in 
any county, in which any other place or places than 
the court-house thereof shall have been designated 
by law for holding a separate poll or polls, afier re- 
ceiving the returns from the commissioners who 
superintended any precinct election, that any indi- 
vidual has voted more than once in the election, 
it shall be their duty to reduce the vote of such 
elector to one. 

And if, upon examining the polls, it shall be dis- 
covered that any person ha h voted twice in the 
same election, either by voting twice at the court- 
house, or by voting twice at the place of holding 
any separate election, or by voting once at each 
place, or in any other manner, it shall be the duly 
of the officer to return such person lo the next 
Grand Jury that shall sit in hi? county, for the In- 
ferior or Superior Court thereof, in order that such 
person may be fined, according to law. And if 
any officer shall fail in this duty, he shall forfeit 
and pay to the Commonwealth, for the berefit of 
the Literary Fund, $100. 

There is but one other provision which your 
committee will bring to your notice, as important 
in preserving this invaluable right in its purity. It 
is, that if any officer conducting an election shall 
directly or indirectly so interfere in the election as 
to show partiality for any of the candidates, he 
shall forfeit and pay the sura of six itundred and 
sixty-six dollars and sixty-six cents, to be recovered 
by bill, plaint, or information, in any court of re- 
cord, one moiety to the use of the informer, and 
the other to the use of the Commonwealth, for the 
benefit of the Literary Fund. 

Your committee would also remark that there 
have been numerous decisions by the Legislature, 
upon particular ca.ses, presented to their considera- 
tion, in contested elections, many of which might 
be important, to show the construction which has 
been given by the General Assembly to cases aris- 
ing under the Constitution and laws, but they are 
loo numerous to be embodied in a report of this 
character; and it is believed that few general prin- 
ciples have been established, each case having been 
usually decided upon itis own merits, upon the par- 
ticular facts presented, and the evidence by which 
they are supported — and a slight variation in these 
facts, or the circumstances of the case, not unfre- 
quently produces entirely opposite decisions appa- 
rently upon the same general principle. 



Your committee do not hesitate to express it as 
the solemn sense of this Cenvention, that these 
laws ought to be faithfully carried out, and the 
pending contest should be fairly decided by the ma- 
jority of the people. They would disdain to achieve 
a temporary party triumph, by prostituting the great 
principles of the Republic, and the lofty character 
of this good Old Commonwealth. The parly which 
would stain the glory of Virginia by gross abuses 
and outrageous frauds — by the seductions of cor- 
ruption and the violation of the law, would deserve 
the execration of every honest Virginian. We 
do not wish to run the race of some of the 
other States. We abhor the infamous attempt 
which was made by the Whigs of Pennsylvania to 
usurp the authority of the Legislature of their 
State, by trampling underfoot the majority of the 
people. We deprecate the daring attempt to set 
aside the voice of the people in New Jersey, and to 
palm upon the Congress of the United States, un- 
der the cover of the broad seal of her Governor, the 
Representatives of the minority of the people. The 
recent elections which have taken place have fur- 
nished additional reasons to suspect, that amid the 
whirlwind of these times, in the phrensy of party 
spirit, in ihf reckless determination to effect their 
objects by unworthy means, the sanctuary of liber- 
ty itself has been desecrated by the frauds of the 
Whigs, in some of the oiher States. The vote of 
Indiana has transcended all previous calculation. 
It has increased from 83 to 117,000 — and there is 
too much reason to fear thai thousands of voters 
have been introduced from the contiguous States to 
colonize several of her counties. The same dark 
suspicion rests upon the votes of Louisville and 
Mobile; and it has been confidently asserted, that 
more votes have been given than were recorded on 
the registers of their votes. And even North Caro- 
lina herself has not escaped the imputation of 
fraud. 

Your committee will cast no such reflection 
upon the Whigs of Virginia, without the plainest 
and most painful evidence of their correctness. 
But they conceive it to be the duty of both parties 
to watch the fist symptoms of its appearance, to 
prevent all frauds, and to punish all offenders, It 
is the wish of this committee, and they undertake to 
say of this convention, to see the right of every 
voter respected, and to prevent every violation of the 
law. All that we ask is fairness and justice. Let 
it be the principle of every Democrat not to vote 
unless the right is plainly given him by the law and 
the Constitution; and if it has been granted, fearless- 
ly to demand it, and to let nothing deter him from 
exercising his privilege. It should be the duty of 
every man, of every party, to see that none shall 
vote who are not entitled to suffrage — and that 
every man who is so enlitled shall be allowed a fair 
opportunity to express his opinion openly and in- 
dependently, like a free ciiizm of this great 
country. 

The committee beg leave to repeat that they 
have no doubt of;carrying the vote of Virginia tri- 
umphantly in favor of Mr. Van Buren, if the voters 
can be induced to attend the polls, and if all bad 
voters are duly excluded. But the very character 
of the electiou ia which we are engaged, demands 



peculi&r prec^ation^ to be made for S'Jch an unex- 
ampled Gontesr. It is the only e!ectii-n ia our own 
State, in which'heismeis o be de-'d>dby ageneral 
ticker. This is so essentially different from the 
other elections, in which the success deppnds oi 
the majority of voters in a single county or a 
single distri 't, that there is some lea^on to fear se- 
veral of the voters will not tarn out to the polls in 
those counties, where the majority i~ Imown to be 
decidedly in favor of one party or tli other. But 
it is obvious, upon the slightest reflec •■!, ihat every 
vote is equally effective in iho.'»e sec; ris, as well as 
in others. A voter i- of as much importance in 
the most decided as in the most doubtful counti"?. 
Whether he live on the sea shore or on the banks 
of the Ohio — in Accomack or in Kanawha — in the 
small county of Warwick or in the immense region 
of MonoDgahela — in the glorious ten'h legion of the 
Republic, or in the Federal countv of Loudoun, 
the suffrage of each voter is of equal weight in the 
scale of ihis contest. 

But, as there may be some citizens who may 
have been misled into a different impression, itbe- 
comeis important to remove their error and to sum- 
mon them to the polls. There are other voters 
besides, who may forget the day of the election — 
others, who may r^'quire to be rou'sed by p»rsonal 
appeals, to attend the polls; and some who may 
stand ia reed of conveyanc-^s to brina: them to the 
election ground. On all these accounts it is of 
great importanc to have cflmmittees appointed in 
every src'.icn of every county and city, whose duty 
it shall be to warn our Republican friends, and 
to rouse them up to a punctual attendance ai the 
polls. 

Resolved, therefore, Toat the C(.rresponding Com- 
mitiees of every county should forthwith appoint 
sab-committees for ench div!;';ion of their respec- 
tive counties, who^e duty it shall hs to obtain a 
register of such voters as we may look to for as- 
sistance at the election; to wait upon all of them at 
their houses, and notify them of the day and place 
and manner of the election; to appeal to their pa- 
triotism; and when the day of eiectioa come«, to 
furnish tvery fKcility which their* years or infirrn - 
ties may require to brinv; ihem to the ground. The 
Corre=;pondiiig Committee of each county is to di- 
vide these duiios amorg their sub-committees, in 
the mo^t judicious way — ^to appomt no man upon, 
this important duty who is not calcula'ed by the 
energie'^ of his chiracier to perform it in the most 
effectual manner — to see that he accepts the oiS'-.e 
which is confided to him, and to s-ee, from time to 
time, that this whole organization be thoroughly 
carried out. 

But as It h extremely desirable, not only that all 
our own ?ood votes should be brought to the pol's, 
but every bad or doubtful vote of the Opposition 
should be excluded. As tiii'--, too, is ;ia election in 
which, from the animated characier of the content, 
more supicious votes will probably be tendi'-reci 
than have ever been called forth at any preceding 
period; and a--, unfortunately, no adequa'e means 
have b?en provided, either by the Slate or Federal 
Governments, to purge the polls, and to ascertain 
the fair aid legitimate majority of the people of the 
State; and as it moreover may happen, although 



we have everv rea'^on to calculate upon a decided 
majority for Mr. Van Buiea, that the question may 
by po'sibili y be hrou'^jht io a very clos' issue, and 
ih' very nature and hisrh importance of the contest 
may be productive of an extraordinary excitement, 
threatening even the tranquillity of the country, 
V. h"re the majority depends upon spurious or even 
suspicious votes, we conceive it to be the solemn 
duty of the Republican party to provide asainst the 
admission of all such votes. It must be recollect- 
ed, too, that where so much depends upon the 
commissioners of the election, th='y should not be 
unwilling to profit by the suggestions of their fei- 
l"W-cittzens. So far from weakening any autho- 
rity wh'ch legitimately belongs to them, does it 
not rather serve to assist ih-^m in the execution of 
their du'ies in the most effectual manner. Nor 
can it fail to be recollec;ed, that as a m.^jority of 
the commi'sioners recently appointed by the Go- 
vernor of Virginia have been selected from the 
Whig partv; as even, in several of those counties 
where the Republicans carried their delegates last 
spring, the Governor has been induced, by the want 
of information, or by the impulse of his friends, or by 
his own partialities, to foriret his own rule, and ap- 
point two Whig or Conservative commis'^ioners, to 
superintend the election; does it net become pecu- 
liarly incumbent on our R^epublcan friends to 
wa'ch the progress of th'? election; catmly and re- 
spectfully to submit their objections, and even their 
doubts; and in fact assist the commissioners in 
doing equal and exact justice to bo'h the parties? 
We wi^rh f.T no advantage; we spurn a victory 
which is to be won even by the remissness of our 
opponents, and we invite them, in the spirit of 
frankness, to co-operaie with us in scrutinizing 
every vote, in r^ugsestins: every objection that may 
be urged to the qualification of the vo'er, an'^ to re- 
move every possible source of complaint and of 
excitement. We earn^stly invite them to co-ope- 
Tiite with us in preventing all frauds on the day of 
election. 

Resolved, therefore, That it be earnestly recom- 
mended to the corresponding committee of each 
county to app niit a sub commit ee, changed with 
the du'v of a'tending each election precinct on the 
day of the Presidential elecion, in order that they 
may challenge every bad or suspicious vote. And 
it is moreover recommended lo them, to place three 
or more Republi-ans upon each sub-committee, 
who are distingu'shed for their energy, intelligence, 
and experience, who?e duty it shall be to study the 
commisMoners' books, for the purpose of ascertain- 
ing the legitimate votes i i the county, and to ob- 
tain a register of her Republican votes; to attend 
the polls during the whole period of the election, 
and to challenge every vote which may be consi- 
dered suspicio IS, and to support every Republicaa 
vote which appears to them to bs conformable to 
the law and the Constitution. 

These challejgers should be capable and vigilant 
men. Thev should exert every energy to preserve 
the purity of the right of suffrage. They should 
zealously attempt to prevent all d(>uble foiing— all 
tricks upon the tickets. In the towns and in neigh- 
boring counties, the challengers should keep a list 
of their own, as ^a check upon double voting. 



These lists might be iatcrchanged, ia the course of 
the day, to prevent the ^ame individual from vot- 
ing at different points. Some benefit may be ex- 
pected from public and decided annunciations, that 
feauds will be prevented at all hazards, and the 
offenders prosecuted. The committees of vigi- 
lance should stand pledged to themselves and to 
their country, to enforce ihe utmost penalty of the. 
law, as soon as possible after the termination of 
the election. Your committee have no hesitation 
in saying, that the annunciation of such an inten- 
tion, accompanied by the adoption of such mea- 
.•^ures a-? may prove iis sincerity, would ofitseif be 
calculated the prevent the perpetration of many a 
fraud. 

The committee .isk leave to be discharged from 
recommending any mode of procuring the instruc- 
tions of the people, on the Senatorial election, as 
those representatives who would not respect the 
vo!e of their counties in the Presidential contest, 
would not feel themselves bound by any authorita- 
tive expression of the popular will. 

Your committee would not consider our system 
of county organization to be complete, if they did 
Eot earnestly press upon the County Corresponding 
Committees, to spare no efforts to efTfct the esta- 
blishment of Democratic A.ssociations in every 
county. We wish not only to counteract the ef- 
fects of the Tippecanoe Clubs, but to inspire an ad- 
ditional interest amon? the great body of our Re- 
ptiblican fellow-citizens. We wish them to take 
a greater persc*nal part in the discussions of the 
day — to enlighten their minds upon the great prin- 
ciples of the Constitution, as well as the respective 
qualificationsof the two candidates. Wfe wish to 
rouse up the slumbering g»nius of the orator — to 
inspire a deeper Democratic feeling, a higher pride, 
a nicer sympathy with the political sentiments of 
each other, to breathe a greater cnnfidencR in each 
other and in themselves. These Democratic As- 
sociations might apply to greater advantage the 
documents which are distributed fro.m this conven- 
tion, or cause to be printed or procured other pub- 
lications. The Corresponding Committee shculd 
send agents, or persoanlly visit the proper sections 
of their counties, for the purpose of forming these 
associations; and when once begun, the as.>-ocia- 
tions should bestir themselves to ex'end the num- 
ber of their associates, wnhont binding up the con- 
science by signatures- or pledges to vo'e for a par- 
ticular candidate, as has bten practised in sime 
p_ai-i£ of the State by the ini'uiiatcd partisans vf the 
Whig candidate. These pledges: strip the freemen 
of his privilege of judging for himself, till the very 
moment of the election. No irreman should give 
any such pledge, and none but a desperate politician 
would exact it. 

We would recommend to onr committees to 
make arrangements for furn;shins every county 
and every populous portion of each coun'y wiih 
public speakers, at least twice before the coming 
election. 

We advise them to communicste freely and 
fully with the Central Committee of Richmond — 
and to infwm them of every grojs device of the 
Whigs, and of every humbug, as seen as it takes 
wing. 



And fi,nally, ia the name of our country, and of 
our cause — by those great State Rights principles 
wh.ch have hitherto constituted the glory as will 
as the safety of Virginia — we call upon all our 
committees to do their duty to themselves, to us, 
to the people of the Old Dominion, and to future 
ages. 

COMMITTEE ON HUMBUGS. 

Report "f the Committee appointed to inquire into the 
Chhrges, Devices, and Hutnbu^s oj the Whig party, 
and also to estimate tke popular vote of the iilale. 
Your committee, afer having divided the labor 
referred to them, and having consulted the delega- 
tions of the several electoral districts, have embo- 
died in separate reports the informaiion which they 
have thus been enabled to collect. They have 
given the subject a cool, calm, and deliberate con- 
side.-ation, and have carefully weighed the returns 
made to them, in all cases giving the Federal oppo- 
sition a liberal vote and claiming for the Demo- 
cratic party the least vote calculated by its friends. 
On adding up the returns, the result gives Martin 
Van BuREN a majority of ^re thousand nine hun- 
dred and eighteen votes. 

In giving thi? estimate, we must be permitted to 
add, that every man is expected to do his duty. 
"Eternal vigilance is the price of liberty," and he 
who will not devote one day to his country deserves 
to be the tenant of a log cabin the remainder of his 
life. We, however, believe that the Democracy 
is aroused from the sea-board to the Ohio. We 
have a standing array of unierrified Democrat? — 
legions that never have, and never will, desert the 
riahts of the people. They are as firm as the 
mountain which contains the ashes of him who 
was the father of the Demicratic creed. Let us 
swear by the tomb of that illustrious man ever to 
vindicate his cherished doctrine, "that the people 
are capable of self-government." 

Your committte have collected some of the hum- 
bugs used by our opp»nents. They only regret 
tiat time does not permit them to give a fuller view 
of ihe various means used by the Fedeml partv, 
aided by the disappcin'ed and ambitious dema- 
gogues of our Slate They will hereafter be looked 
up'jn as m-mentos of the desperation and folly of 
their p.uihors. . 

There have been raised in this State seventeen 
log cabins ornameutrd by two stuffed bear skins, 
one living bear, together with coon skins, broom.', 
gourd-:, and cider barrels, innumerable. Some of 
these have only lasted a day, and the last one heard 
of was sold to a fee negro for^l 50- Five cam-es 
have made their appearance on ihe soil of the Old 
Dominion to funher the interests of the Hero of 
North Bend. Whig ora*ors and missionaries are 
traversing the S'ate in every direction, dealing out 
the terrors of the standing army, the extravagance 
of plased spoons, the speeches of Ogle, T.ppecanoe 
song-5, &c. 

Your committee recommend the adoption of the 
following resolution: 

Resolved, That this report, together with the ta- 
bula, estimate of the popular vote, be placed in the 
hands of the sccie^ary lor publication. 



23 



ESTIMATE OF THE POPULAR VOTE. 



1st District 
2d do 
3d do 
4th do 
5th do 
6ih do 

do 

do 

do 



7th 
8th 
9 th 



10th do 
llth do 
12th do 
13th do 
14th do 
]5thdo 
16th do 
17ih do 
13th do 
19th do 
20!h I'o 
21st Lio 
22d do 
23d do 



Democratic 
75 
635 
505 
550 
5 
150 



370 
140 



Federal 



635 



1,625 
1,175 



225 

«42 



500 
130 

870 
185 



600 
75 



3,427 



5,918 Majority for VanEuren. 
VAN BUREN ELECTORAL TICKET. 



l>t Dis. 

2d do 

3d do 

4th do 

5th do 

6ih do 

7th do 

8th do 

9th do 

lOih do 

llth do 

12th do 

13th do 

14th do 

15th do 

16 h do 

17th do 

18th do 

19th do 

•20th do 

21st do 

22d do 

23d do 



Arthur Smith, 
John Cargill, 

James Jonks, 

W. R. B^SKERViLLE, 

Charles YANCEy, 
Richard Logan, 
Archibald St o art, 
William J^ines, 
A. Brockenbrough. 
John Gibson, 
J. D Hallveurton, 
Thos J. Randolph, 
Waller H< lladay, 
Inman Horner, 

HiEROME L. OPIE, 

Wm. a. Harris, 
J. D. Williamson, 
Wm Taylor, 
Aug. a. Chapman, 
James H' 'GE, 
Wm. Byars, 
Benjamin Br'iwn, 
John Hindman, 



Of Isle of Wight, 
Sussex, 
J^oiloway, 
Mecklenburg. 
Buckingham, 
Hal' fax. 
Pait ick. 
Gloticesier. 
Es'<ex. 

Prince iVilliatn, 
JVew Kent. 
Albemarle. 
Spottsylvarda. 
Fauquier. 
Jefferson. 
Ptti^e. 

Rockingham. 
Rochbri'lge, 
Monroe. 
Pulaski. 
Washington, 
CahtU. 
Brocke. 



REPORT ON MISCELLANEOUS SUBJECTS, 
not embraced in the foregoing report. 
The committee, appointed uud^r the last resolu- 
tion reported lo and adopted by the Convenii m on 
its first day's session, re^pec fally report, that, afier 
a full and free interchange of opinions among iis 
members, they have concluded that there was no 
subject which could bead/aniageously presented by 
it to the consideration of the Convenlion. They 
therefore aik to be discharg' d. 



A LIST OF THE NAMES OP THE DELE- 
GATES OF THE CONVENTION, 
Arranged according to the alphabetical order of ths 
counties. 

Accomack — Robert J. Poulson, John B. Ail- 
worih, James H. Djx, James B. Poulson, M. P. 
Bayley. 

Albemaule.— Th. J. Ra'.idolph, Gen. Wm. F. 
Gordon, Shelion F. Leake, Dr. Gesner Harrison, 
Col. Wis. H. Woodley, JAme* L. Gordon, George 
W. Craven, Th. W Maury, Dr. Wm. T. Gooch, 
Peter Merri.vether, Luiher M. George, Al. St. C. 
Heiskell, Francis McGehee, J?.«se Lewis, George 
Toole, Edwin Gooch, Richmond Terrell, Col. Sa- 
muel Carr, Dr. John Mmor, Reuben Lewis, Dab- 
ney Gooch, John P. Hill, Wm. G. Garner, Henry 
Benson. John Norris.John H. Craven, Edwin Con- 
way, W. J. Robertson, George W. Spooner, W. 
S. C.'aven, Col. David R Goodman, Joshua Jack- 
son, Nelson Barksdale, Joel Terrell, Willis D. 
Garth, Jeremiah Toole, M^ahew Wingfield, Col. 
Th. F. Winsfield, Th. Grady, A. J. Garner, Dr. C. 
Meriiwe;hef, Talker Colds, W. B. Harris, Rich- 
ard Farraa, NathanielGariand, John Wheeler, Ns- 
thaniel ^'arrar, Rrubcn El.sorae, Benj. Childress, sr, 
Thomas Daniel, John H. Nicholas, S. M. Appling, 
Nathaniel Goolsby, Dr. John W. Garritt, E. H. 
Jordon, Dr. B. F. Price, Daniel Scott, Benj. M. 
Perkins, John H. Coleman, Benj. Dawson, Dr. 
Jos. B. Glover, Dr. John S. Nicholas, Peter Porter, 
Samuel Ctiildrese, John Bowman, Walter Coles, 
Col. John Jones, Wm. MuUins, Benj. T. Brown, 
Ofvi;le Allen, Jam<»s E. Ciapman, Clifton Harris, 
James Michie jr. Wm. Catlerton, sr. Wm. Rodes, 
James B. Ro;'crs, F. F. Kirby, R. D. Simms, Ma- 
jor John Di'Uglass, Edward Hamm, Capt. Edwia 
Do'Jgla--s, Levi Wood, Th. Gilbert; John Carlin, 
M. Mahanes, James Flint,sr. James Douglass, Col. 
D. Haves, Henry Morris, Wm. Cowherd, Capt. 
Colin Johnson, W. W. Randolph, Girrett White, 
John Wood.sr. Joseph Watson, Rowland H.Bates, 
Dr. E. L Williams, James Durrett, John Durrett, 
Richard H.Wood, Reuben Wood, Nathaniel Ross, 
Jeremiah Doilins, John Wingficld, John DoUins, 
John P. Jackson, Jerome B. Wood, Capt. Chas. A. 
Smith, Samuel Black, James Black, Abram Smith, 
Thomas Jackson, Dr. John Eagon, Capt. G.Mar- 
shall, S. 0. Moon, Jame-s Bailey, John Pollard sr. 
Benjaoiin Wheeler, Thomas Cccke, Samuel 
Monteomerv, S. A. Furguson, Robert Fos- 
ter, W. W. Foster, Hudson Barksdale, Huc"- 
Siin O^k:, Joseph Grayson, Thomas Foster, 
Joshua Foster, E. C. Browning, W. G. Barksdate,, 
W. Rothweil,|Jessee B. Hamner, A. K. Yancy, 
Captain John Dettor, R. S. Abell, Capt. J. Shelton^. 
Caot. S. C. Shelton, J. Wayland, Dabney Carr, 
sen. Th. 0. Carr, sen. E. D. Brown, Joel Yancey, 
Tn. Rodes, A. H. Doilins, Capt. H. Lewis, Capt. 
J L. Thomas. John White, R. C. Hendersonj, 
Henry White, J. C. Mann. 

Amherst. — Henry W. Q,uarles, Edwin L. Shel- 
ton. 

Augusta. — George Baylor, James Leng, Samu?! 
B. Brown, W. Guliey, F. S. Heiskill, P. A. Heis- 
kill, B. F. Graham, B. F. Walker, C. R. Hams. 



£4 



Bedford. — Richard Davis, Dr. Rob. C. Clemont, 
M. A. Meriwether, 
j^ BoTTETouRT. — R. M. Hadsoii. 

Brunswick. — Wm. Meredith. 

Buckingham. — Charle-s Yancey, Price Perkins, 
W. P. Moseley, John Lightfoot, Robert Turner, 
Clemont R. Founlaine, W. Leitch, George Booker, 
C. R. Harris. 

Campbell. — W. T. Young;, Charles E. Davi?, 
Joseph R. Bailey, Adolphus D. Read, Robert A. 
Gray. 

Caroline. — John Tod, Henry H. Samuel, D. 
Dejarnette. 

Charlotte. — John D. Richardson, John Cole- 
man, H. G. M. Cargo, Mathew R. Armi^ead. 

Chesterfield. — Higgerson Hancock, Daniel A. 
Flournoy, Green Hall, Geo. E. Wills. 

Clarke. — Cyrus McCormick, Joab Joler, C. C. 
Kirby, Benj. B. Lane, W. Castleman, Nath'l 
Burrell, James Castleman, Samuel Lawrence. 

Warren. — John C. Davidson, Jacob Baker, 
Christian Forror. 

Culpeper — Major Thos. Hill, John Wharton, 
Dr. W. S. Hill, William Smith, Henry Hill, jr. 
Ambrose P. Hill. 

Cumberland John W. Wilson, Henry B. 

Branch, W. Daniel, John C. Page, Overton B. Pet- 
tit, W. B. Crowder, Richard Johnscn, John Tulley, 
Carter H. Harrison, Samuel Hobson. 

Essex. — Jno. Mercer Garnett. 

FAcauiRE" — John R. Wallace, W. W. Wallace, 
Inman Horner, James French, John A. Lee, Hen- 
ry M. Lewis, John B. Downman, John M. Fant, 
H^.nry T. Fant. 

Fayette — Col. Andrew Beirne, Gen-. A. A. 
Chapman, Robert A. Thompson, Jacob Goshorns. 

Fluvanna. — Nevil B. Gay, A. M. Harrison, 
Jno. M. Wills, G. W. Richardson, Jno. G. H nghrs, 
Sara'l T. Woodson, D. W. K. Bowles, W. H. 
Massie, Austin Seay, W. Catiet, M. B. Carring- 
ton. Fountain Wills. 

Franklin. — Norborne M. Taliaferro. 

Frederick. — Hugh H. Hile, James H. Carson, 
John E. Daingerfield. 

Greem. — George C. Blakey, Daniel Willis, E. 
R. Davis, James Beasley, W. R. Mills, Anthnny 
Thornton, Jas. T- Ship, J. B. White, E. J. Wil- 
liams. 

Goochland. — Richard Sampson, John M. Tre- 
villian, Nivison Waikins, P. Guerrant, John Ford. 

Greenville. — Edward P. Scott. 

Hanover. — W. L. White, Jno. D. G. Brown, 
Charles W. Dabney, Lancv Jones, Dr. Robert H. 
Nelson, Dr. Edward L. Nelson, Marcellus M. 
Anderson. 

Hardy. — Gabriel T. Barbee. 

Harrison. — Cyius Vance, Joseph L. LeFevre. 

Henrico. — Samuel Cottrell, James M. Seldin. 

Henry. — A. Hughes Dillard, Elam Williams. 

Halifax. — Col. Paul Taylor. 

LsLE OF Wight. — Robert Butler, William H. 
fDay. 

Jefferson. — Henry Bedinger, Jno. C. R. Tay- 
J[or. 

Kanawha. — Robert A. Thjmpson, Jacob Gos- 
faorn. 

Kma William — Frank G. Ruffin, Benjamin F. 
ODabney. 



Loddon — S. T. Mason, Rob. Coe, Bernard 
Pursel. 

Louisa. — Jo^seph Lipscomb, Benj. F. Francisco, 
N. H Crawford, A. N. Trice, D. A. Trice. A. F. 
Butler, W. Nelson, Hugh Goodwin, jr. Thomas 
Gooch, W. W. Anderson, Richard Roberts, John 
Poindexter, Jno. J. Holladay. 

Mabison. — Jos. M. Fray, Linn Banks, W. 
Simms, Tandy Collins, Travis G. Twyman, 
Henry Ayler, Albert G. Early, R. A. Banks, 
T. J. Humphrey.*, Angus R Blakey, Wes- 
ley Frey, Edmond P. Chapms<n, Jss. W. Walker, 
Nath. G. Welch, Jas. T. Hill, Morris D. New- 
man, George A. Buckner, W. J. Wright, J. W, 
Frey, Francis H. Hill, Jno. Weaver, Edwin F. 
Hill. 

Mathews and Middlesex — Jno. R. Tavlor, 
Lewis W. Robin>on, Lewis B. Montague, Tho- 
mas Street, Hillary Cligg. 

Meckl'-nburg. — Tydnal J«nes, Alex. Dortch. 

Monroe. — Andrew Burne, Gen. A. Chapman. 

MoNTGOxMERY. — Daniel H. Hoge, Henry Ribble. 

Nansemond. — N H. Woodley. 

Nelson. — Flovd L. Whitehead, Lloyd G. Har- 
ris, Litilfbury N. Liggon, Chapel Davenport, 
John M. Smiih, Charles P. Rodes, John B. Coles, 
W. S. Murrell. Ryland Rodes. 

Norfolk.— Bernard O'Niell, Patrick H. Cooke, 
Tbeophilus Fish. 

Nottoway — Peter J. Grigg, A. A. Campbell. 

Orange. — Ambro.'^e Madison, John H. Grasty, 
Robert King, John Willis, Thomas Scoit, James 
R. Newman, Robert T. Willis, Jaraes Newman, 
E.B. Barhour, W. Smith. Jas. M. Macon, John 
Walk>?r, Robert Thoma^, Wm. Douglas. 

Page. — W. A. Harris, Daniel Spitter, Mann 
Almond, John McPherson, Wm. R Almond, An- 
drew HevsoQ, Joseph Key.-en, Andrew F. Grayson, 

Pendleton. — Harmon Hiner. 

P1TT.STLVANIA. — James Garland, Nathaniel Wil- 
son, W. L. Graham, George P. Keersee, W. C. 
Claiborne. 

PcwHATAN. — J"hn W. Nash, Samuel Drake, 
Edward Mayo, Edward W. Ears, Joseph Wren, 
A'l^rier Crump. 

Prince Edward. — Samuel C Anderson, T. 
Tiedway, Lather JeflVies, W. C. Flournoy. 

Prin-ce George. — Nathaniel Prend. 

Prin-ce William — Jchn W. Tyler, George W. 
Mr-Crae, Washington H. Norville. 

Roanoke Nathaniel Burrill. 

Randolph — 'Wm. Martcney. 

Rafpahanncck. — Lawson Eastman, Robert M. 
Heierich. 

Ro( keridge — Benjimin H. Porter, Robert J. 
Tavlor, Cyrus R. McCormick. 

Surry — A. Atkinsnn. 

Ri ckingham — Peachy Harrison, Edward H. 
Smiih, Samuel uibbons, John Warren, Mitchel 
Conrad, Thomas Harri.son, Jacob W. Simmon, 
Alexander McGilvray, James C. Shipman, Robert 
Gratian, John Dundon-', John Cowan, Isaac fho- 
ma.":, Reuben Moore, Abraham Byrd, Samuel Mot- 
fat, Anderson Moffat, William West, W. B Yan- 
cv, Tobias B. McGahey, Thomas Miller, Henry 
Miller, Simeon B. Jennings, Noah Beery, C. D. 
Gray. 

Southampton. — Robert Ridley. 



25 



Norfolk Borough. — Mordecai Cooke, jr. Mon- 
roe Keliey, John N. Tazwell, John S. Milson, 
Wm. Steed, Henry Robinson, J. C. Robinson, W. 
N. Gait. 

PETERSBnRG. — PaTick Foley, H. B. Gains, 
Thomas Wal.ace, N. M. Martin, H. Whitmore, 
Jordan Branch, B. T. Barnwell. 

Richmond City. — Peter V. Daniel, W. D. 
Wren, Thomas Ritchie, Daniel Trueheart, James 
Bosher, Samuel D. Denoon,'W. Wallace, Jas. G. 
Bosher, Jno. H. Christian, Washington Greenhow, 
Richard B. Gooch. E. Lockett. 

Shenandoah. — J. C. Calvert, John D. Sirkle, 



Philip Pitman, Lawrence Pitman, Philip 0. Jones, 
Reuben C- Kniedly, Thomas Brooke. 

SpoTTSYLVANiA. — Elliot Dejametle, Al. R. Kol- 
laday. 

Stafford. — Alexander Fiizhugb, Walker P. 
Conway, Jno. 0. Banks, Geo. W. Stone, Jas. R. 
Benson, W. W, L. Benson, Jna. M. Stevens. 

Sussex.— Jno. Cargill, Richard H. Parham, Jno. 
0. Moyler, Mathew Moore, Micajah Ellis. 

Wesmoreland. — J. N. Powell. 

The Secretary regrets that the returns of several 
delegations were mislaid, and others not handed in: 
thus reducing the above list very much. 



INTERESTING CORRESPONDENCE. 
LETTER OF GEORGE M. DALLAS OF PENNSYLVANIA. 



Philadelphia, August 29, 1840. 

Dear Sir: Your introductory letter of the 13th 
inst. with tne introductory one from Mr. J. B. 
Smith, reached me some days ago, and I have im- 
patiently waited for a moment of leisure to reply 
to it. 

The proceedings of the Democratic State Con- 
vention at Charlotresville, on the 9ih of September, 
will exerci.'^e a strong influence upon the public 
opinion of Virginia, and may be felt throughout 
the whole South. Indeed they must be regarded, 
at the present time with great interest in all parts 
of the country. The politics, the measures, and the 
sentiments of your Commonwealth, when forcibly 
and distinctly enunciated, are habitually and justly 
respected every where. 

The Northern and Central Democracy find it 
impossible to imagine that, in a contest such as the 
one now waging, they are in danger of being de- 
serted by Virginia. They have struggled vigorous- 
ly, for many years, to repress and subdue, not the 
Federal doctrines of '98 alone, but, wiih them, the 
new fanaticism, whose aim, however disguised, 
cannot be accompli.'-hed without subverting the con- 
stitutional rights and domestic institutions of the 
slaveholding States. Dntil that fanaticism allied 
itself to the relics of Federalism, it was kept pow- 
erless. Vir>.iiiia must have imperceptibly under- 
gone an inexplicable revolution of character, if she 
consent to embrace, in combination, two principles, 
which, singly, she has uniformly denounced and 
detested. 

It i-s perfectly well known here, that the nomi- 
nation of G'-neral Harrison, at Harrisburg, was 
extorted by the dictatorial violence and inflaied 
promises of Abolitionists. They do not perhaps 
constitute the whole of the Opposition ; but they 
are its ruling cabal, its master spirits, and the 
Presidential candidate is notoriously their nominee. 
They exulted, publiclv and privately, in their suc- 
cess. They are, in all directions, eager, indefati- 
gable and controlling directors of his canvass. 
They regard him as their cunningly selected repre- 
sentative, in whose elevation they foresee, if not 
the immediate attainment of their destructive pur- 



pose, certainly its rapid advancement. The deem 
the battle theirs, and anticipate reaping the only 
substantial harvest which a victory can yield. 

Although it migh' be unjust to say that every 
Whig is an Abolitioni.st, by direction or indirection, 
it is obviwus not unjust to say that every Whig is 
willing to incur the risk and responsibility of coun- 
tenancing and encouraging them. They mass of 
Northern and central Whigs are far from hostile 
to their principles and projectb — and the few of 
them who disclaim now, would hasten to send in 
their adhesion, were Harrison elected, or would 
cease to have the slightest influence. As on all si- 
milar occasions, the practical effect would be, to 
place the policy, the power, and the patronage of 
the successful combination in the hands of its most 
zealous and least scrupulous fraction. Every 
Whig would feel that Abolition had chalked out 
the road to triumph— that Abolition had furnished 
the efficient partisans — that Abolition had filled the 
ballot-boxes — and that Abolition was entitled to 
fair treatment and toleration. The day which as- 
certained Gen. Harrison to be the President elect, 
would not close without a proclamation for an 
Abolition jubilee. 

I am not unwilling to believe that many of the 
Southern Whigs cordially bate Abolition— although 
I cannot help su,specting that some of them would 
like to see raging its threatened storms, in the delu- 
sive hope of attaining, amid the general confusion, 
some personal distinction. Clear it is, that their 
party spirit is too strong for their patriotism; or 
they do not know the fiend with whom they have 
made a compact; or they are foolhardy enough to 
take to their bosom a serpent (numbed by Jforthern 
blasts) whose fangs have been specially prepared 
to strike deep into their own system. Surely they 
cannot vainly imagine that, by associating and 
campaigning with Abolition, they may check it 
more effectually than by openly encountering it as 
an enemy. If they think to curb, guide, soothe, or 
tame it, in the hour and amid the spoils of victory, 
their ignorance of its real nature, of its delirious 
faD.^ticism, is as childish as treacherous. 

It shouU be recollected that the Northern and 



26 



Central Democrats have maintained the fight 
against Abolition for years, actuated solely by a 
high and honorable sense of constitutional obliga- 
tion and an attachment to their Southern brethren, 
its ascendancy could do them no harm. Its virus 
is not poison on their palate. However unpatriot- 
ic and ungenerous it certainly would be, they might 
facilitate their local politics and tranquillize their 
local feuds, by disclaiming all concern in the ques- 
tion, by permitting, like a neutral, the invader to 
pass unmolened through their territory; and by 
leaving to domestic servitude its own defence. 
Such a course, I freely admit, would be a derelic- 
tion of public duty. But, then, my dear, sir, if 
Southern Democrats allow themselves to be co- 
zened and cajoled into welcoming and comforting 
this very foe, whose progress to their regions we 
have steadily impeded; if, at the crisis of its perni- 
cious career, we discover that, so far from seizing 
the OGcasion to unite in extinguishing it, the slave- 
holding States abandon our long-tried friendship 
and co-operation, to achieve a measure which lifrs 
Abolition from the dust, and seats it on the right 
hand of power, what are we to do? What can we 
be expected to do? What can we be expect- 
ed to do? For my own part — a very hum- 
ble one— I am ready for unremitting and un- 
compromising war against a principle, whose mere 
enunciation in this country sounds in my ears like 
a tocsin to rebellion and treason to the Constitution. 
But I do not think that our knowledge of human 
nature warrants us in anticipating, under the cir- 



cumstances I have supposed, a like resolution to be 
generally and permanently evinced. In fact, I 
do not think that the election of Gen. Harrison, if 
achieved with the aid of a single leading slavehold- 
ing Commonwealth, could fail to dissolve the ex- 
isting league against Abolition, leaving it to range 
in the Eastern and Middle States unresisted, if not 
constantly recruiting. 

Entertaining these impressions, you may well 
imagiiie my gratification on receiving your as- 
surances that noble old Virginia, though deceived 
and misled for a season, had speedily rallied, and 
being convinced of "</je unity between the Jfliig and 
MoUtion parties,''^ would sustain the good cause by 
majority of at least five thousand. My infor- 
mation justifies a confident expectation of the 
same enlightened patriotism from New Jersey, Ma- 
ryland, Delaware, and even North Carolina, nor 
have I seen er heard, in any one slaveholding 
Slate, a substantial cause to apprehend a different 
result. In Pennsylvania the general election takes 
place on the 13th of October, and the electoral on 
the 30th of the same month. I shall be surprised 
if we do not give to Mr. Van Euren a majority 
exceeding twenty thousand. Of Maine, New 
Hampshire, Massachusetts, New York, and Ohio, 
our friends ssnd us accounts which relieve us from 
every apprehension. 

I am, dear sir, respectfully and truly, 

Your most obedient servant, 

G. M. DALLAS. 



GEORGIA— LETTER OF JOHN FORSYTH. 



Fredericksborg, (Va.) Aug. 29, 1840. 

On my way to the Indian Springs to meet such 
of my fellow-citizens as might comply with the in- 
vitation to be present at the dinner to be given to 
our Senators and three of our Representatives in 
Congress, on the 2d of September, I am detained 
here by a painful disorder, incompatible with the 
prosecution of my journey. In my own judgment, 
the detention is of no importance except to my- 
self, as I cannot presume that my presence or ab- 
sence will in the slightest degree affect the opinions 
and actions of any of the persons who may com- 
pose that assemblage. I rC; ret it, nevertheless, as 
I am deprived of an opportunity to meet valued 
friends, and am unable to do that which others, 
for whom I entertain a strong affection, and whose 
prudence and good sense give weight to their re- 
commendations, have thought it would be useful 
in the present agitated state of our country. 

I have seen nothing to shake my confidence in 
the power of truth; nothing to make me doubt the 
futility of all attempts to delude the people by in- 
genious equivocations, artful exaggerations, blus- 
tering pretensions, ©r open falsehoods. When the 
spirit of inquiry is awakened, the people are not to be 
turned from the pursuit of facts by processions 
and parades, by travelling orators and ballad sing- 
ers, by fiddlings and revelries. A careful investi- 
gation of those facts, and calm reflection upon 



them at home, give to the humblest citizen the 
power to decide wi.-^eiy in whose hands the Chief 
Magistracy of the nation can be safely entrusted 
for the preservation of external peace, and a per- 
petuation of those domestic institutions with which 
are inseparably connected the harmony of the 
Union, and prosperity, national and individual. 
These will be used, and, being used, the result will 
be right. If it were necessary or proper, I could 
bear my humble testimony to the fidelity with 
which the declared opinions of the present incum- 
bent have been acted upon. Necessary it is not, 
since the chief ground of objection to bim is, that 
he has perfoi med his engagements, and "followed 
in the footsteps of his predecessor." Proper it 
will not be considered, as I have been intimately 
associated with his admini.straiion, and identified 
in feeling and judgment with the grea« measures of 
its fiscal and foreign policy, and would be looked 
upon as a volunteer and interested witness. In- 
stead, therefore, of speaking what I know and be- 
lieve to be just of BIr. Van Baren and of Gen. 
Harrison, I will use the right of every member of 
the community, to refer to things of common noto- 
riety, which will aid my fellow-citizens in Georgia 
in discovering to which of these persons they may 
safely confide the Executive power, as it may in-j 
fluence or control the great questions: 
Of a protective tariff; 



Of internal improvements; 

Of appropriation and expenditure; 

Of the mode of keeping and disbursing the pub- 
iic funds; 

Of slavery, as it exists from the northern con- 
fines of Maryland to the Sabine and Red rivers. 

[Q,uestions of foreign policy are omitted; for, 
strange to say, they are not topics in the Presiden- 
tial canvass; and on that subject the advocates of 
universal reform intend to make no change.] 

On these questions the opinions of Mr. Van Bu- 
ren and General Harrison have been in various 
forms and at different perieds asked for. What 
their answers were, at what time, and in what man- 
ner given, are well known facts. My fellow-citizens 
can readily decide, with these facts in view, which 
of these gentlemen agrees with them on these im- 
portant and vital subjects. By comparing the ex- 
plicit, frank, prompt, public, and uniform commu- 
nications of Mr. Van Buren, given with like readi- 
ness to friend or foe, wiih the reluctant, equivocal, 
and not unfrequently contradictory givings out of 
General Harrison — sometimes by reference to for- 
mer declarations, sometimes by letters from friends 
and friendly committees — again by speeches at ar- 
ranged meeiings, and then by private letters for 
use, but not (oT piiblicalion, they can, without difficul- 
ty, determine which of them deserves their confi- 
dence. Should any doubt remain, after this com- 
parison, there are two other facts not unworthy to 
be remembeied in forming a correct judgment. 
Mr. Van Buren has imputed to him by his advo- 
cates every where, the same opinions and the same 
principles. The opinions and principles imputed to 
General Harrison by his friends and supporters are 
variant and contras'.ed. Chamelewn-like, they take 
their hues from the objects upon which they rest 
while you are called upon to examine them, and 
show a color to suit the region where they are pre- 
sented to View. 

S'.culd the belief be entertained that the decla- 
rations of the parties themselves, or those of friends 
anxious to promote th^-ir success, are not sa.'e 
guides, the motives to concealment, equivocation, 
or deception being so powerful, try the parties by 
the experimentum crvxis. 

In various stations each has be@n before the pub- 
lic for more than thirty years. Comp.ire their pro- 
fessions with their acts, and theo the results of 
each comparison. If still not satisfied, there are 
other broad facts that cannot fail to bring convic- 
tion to the hone,^<tly inquiring mind. A belter judg- 
ment of the probable conduct of an Administration 
in this cnuntry is to be formed by looking at the 
parlies by whom its chief is brought forward, and 
by whom he will be supported if they succeed, 
than by a scruiny into ihe particular opinions and 
political course of the person who is proposed for 
that siation. Mr. Van Buren is the candidate of 
that pany in all the States, who, under the lead 
of General Jackson, ai rested the gigantic and mad 
scheme of universal internal improvement — who 
wrested the public money from the hands of irre- 
sponsible and doubtful corporations, and broke 
their power — v/ho seek to reduce duties and taxes 
to the wants of the Government — and who believe 
that these wants admit of diminutions of the pub- 



lic expenditure; of a party every where arrayed 
against Abolition, and ready, at all hazards and at 
all times, to see that the constitutional guarantee of 
Southern property is fairly and faithfully maintain- 
ed. He is equally acceptable to that party in the 
Southern, Western, Eastern, and Middle Stales- 
has been forced upon neither by combinations or 
intrigues. 

General Harrison is the candidate of all the par- 
ties in the United States who can be brought to act 
against the present Administration by the common 
instinct of hatred. He was forced upon the South- 
ern portion of these parties by the combination of 
Antimasonry and Abolitionism. Not one South- 
ern vote was given to him in the Harrisburg con- 
vention. Among his supporters are ranked the 
high tariff and internal improvement men, under 
the banners of Mr. Clay; the high-toned politician 
of the New England States — who construe the Con- 
stitution like the common law, which, contracted as 
it may seem, expands indefinitely, according to the 
supposed exigency of the times — who believe there 
is no safety or prosperity wiihout the agency of a 
National Bank to manage the fiscal concerns of 
the Government, and furnish a currency for the 
people — who opposed the late war, and established, 
according to opinions expressed in the British Par- 
liament, a sort of understood neutrality with the 
enemy during its continuance — who acknowledge 
as their leader and standard-bearer, Mr. Webster, 
(if Boston; ihe Abohtioni^ts, of all colors, under 
Slade of Vermont, Seward and Bradish, Governor 
and Lieutenant Governor of New York, under 
whose auspices a deliberate attempt has been 
made, by State kgi.*lation, to evade that provision 
of the Federal Constitution which was adopted 
for the protection of Southern rights: the Con- 
Conservatives, under the guidance of Mr. Rives, 
who have abandoned their former friends because 
the keys of the vaults where the public treasure is 
deposited are kept in the pockets of officers of Go- 
vernment, and not by cashiers of State banks; and 
who predict ruin and desolation to the country be- 
cause that treasure can no longer, under the con- 
trol of all sorts of State bank directors, be made 
the bssis of loans to stimulate every species of cor- 
poration folly or private speculation; a fragment of 
the Nullifiers, under Mr. Preston and Gen. Wad- 
dy Thompson, who have been whirled, like atoms 
of dust, from the chariot wheels of South Caroli- 
na, as they rolled into their ancient tracks in the 
lanks of Democracy. 

The supporters of the General in Georgia I need 
not designafe. They are known; what they have 
been, what they are, and what they wish to be. 
Some of them have had, and have lost, popular 
confidence; some yet enjoy it; and they unite in 
their endeavors — the one lo recover, the other to 
retain, popular favor. To effect their common ob- 
ject, they are closely allied to politicians whose- 
principles they have solemnly rejected; whose con- 
duct they have repeatedly denounced; whose ob- 
jects they have always professed to abhor. If there 
is any truth in the maxim of nascitur associis, it will 
not be very difficult to decide, from this array of 
his friends, what reliance can be placed on General 
Harrison by Georgians, 



S8 



The only Chief Magistrate to whom the South- 
ern States can safely trust themselves, is one who 
will use the influence of his place wisely, to lead 
Congressional legislation on the subject that must 
arise for discussion within the coming Presidential 
term — the apportionment of representation, the sys- 
tem of revenue, the admission of new States into 
the Union; and one who will use his power fear- 
lessly and fully to control all attempts at legislation 
on that subject which is exclusively Southern. On 
this there can be no parley; for it admits of no 
compromise. Those who agitate it do evil, what- 
ever be their pretences or their motives. Thuse 
who associate, combine, and act with those agita- 
tors, must look to have the finger of suspicion 
pointed at them. No Southern man, who will read 
dispassionately the address to the people of ihe 
slaveholding States, and the accompanying evi- 
dence, from the Democratic menabere of Congress 
from those States, can have any excuse for mis- 
taking his duty when he acts on this question. To 
the embodied evidence presented of the movements 
within ihe United States of the disturbers of South- 
ern repose, may be usefully added a reference to 
what is going on abroad. The Government of 
Great Britain, which has always permitted the Ca- 
nadas to be the asylum of runaway slaves, has, 
within a few years, converted all its West India 
possessions into places of refuge for them, and has 
fi-rmally declared that no claim for them will be 
availing, although they reach their possessions by 
fraud or violence. The same Government has 
been lately employing itself as the volunteer or se- 
lected agent of the Pope, in presenting an apostoLc 
letter on slavery to some of the Spanish American 
States — a letter which it is not at all improbable 
was prepared under influences proceeding from the 
British isles. 

Under its convention with Spain respecting the 
slave trad , it has commissioners in Havana scru- 
tinizing into the commercial pursuits of all nations, 
and marking all vessels not British bound to the 
coast of Africa, as suspected of the slave trade, 
when loaded with cargoes which are lawful com- 
merce in English, vessels from Sierra Leone to any 
parts of the slace coast from whence the slave facto- 
ries are supplied loith them. It has black regiments 
in its army by the enlistment of recaptured Afri- 
cans. Some of the statesmen and pamphleteers of 
England are engaged, since emancipation in the 
West Indies has diminished the productive value of 
their West India Islands, in devising schemes to give 
& present preference in their markets to the produc- 
tions of /r«e labor, (like that in British India!) and 
gradually to exclude from them the products of the 
labor of slaves. Of the temper and mtcntions of the 
agitators of the question of slavery, and the means 
to be employed, abundant evidences are afl"ordf d in 
the proceedings of the "World's Convention," 
which met in London on the 12th, and continued 
until the 23d of last June. Two resolutions were 
unanimously adopted, too significant to require 
much comment. Those resolutions denounce the 
removal of slaves from the old to the new States as 
an unrighteous traffic, of which eighty thousand are 
annually victims; as exciting detestation. Surprise 
and abhorrence are acknowledged, that it should 



be protected and cherished by this Government. 
That it involves hardness of heart in the traders, 
and cruelty to the negroes, is asserted; and that ef- 
fectual me ans should be iramediatrly taken to re- ^ 
move this stain from the character of this nation. 
Was there ever such a compound of ignorance, fol- 
ly, and insolence? The brutal O'ConncU was quite 
at home in such a convention; and his insults to the 
representative of a foreign Government near his 
own, hi? vituperation of two of our eminent public 
men, were quite in harmony with the occasion. 
The transportation of our property from Virginia 
to Louisiana, the internal slave trade, maik you, is 
"unrighteous," and effectual means ought to be ta- 
ken in the United States forthwith to remove the 
stain from this nation. What are these means? 
We can guess. First, prohibition by Congress of 
the transportauon of slaves by land or by sea, from 
one State to another; next, a prohibition ol' ihe sale 
of slaves by one man to another in the same State; 
and then we shall be ripe for either the late Mr. 
Rufus King's or General Harrison's plan of gradu- 
al emancipation; the Government purchase of the 
blacks by the proceeds of the public lands, or by 
the u^e of the surplus revenue — taxes and duties 
being properly increased to make that surplus large 
enough to effectuate the object. 

Tne shadows of the troubles in store fir us, at 
home and abroad, are darkening and stealing upon 
us. What no'e of preparatifn is heard? What 
measures of precaution are required? The gravest 
thought and most anxious delibercition are de- 
manded, to meet the dangers which will sooner or | 
later come. What others may persuade them- | 
should be done, I cannot tell; but no step would 
seem to be better adapted to brin^ them upon us at 
an early day, and when we shall he utterly desti- 
tute of preparation, than placing the power of the 
General Government in the handsof ihe heteroge- 
neous coalition that now seek to obtain it in the 
person of one without the requisite qualifications 
for the Chief Magistr,itc of a great Republic, and 
who is accustomed, with too much appearance of 
truth, of having, in a public address, engaged if 
elected, not to thwart Congress by the ue of the 

VETO POWER. 

The veto power ! a portion of the authority 
given to the Executive by the wise framers of our 
Government, v/hich the incumbent of the Presiden- 
tial chair can neither surrender nor trammel him- 
self with the exercise of, without personal dishonor 
and treachery to the Constitution. The veto power! 
the safeguard of the people against improvident le- 
gislation, or Congressional encioachment on the 
rights of the States and of the co-ordmaie branches 
of the Government. The veto power ! the ark of 
safety for the Southern States, used for them, it is 
impossible, while the equality of a SenRtorial re- 
presentation remain.-^, and the present relative pro- 
portion of the sla e States is preserved, for ilie 
phrenzy of fanaticism and the recklessness of asso- 
ciated party profligacy to disturb our respose, orl 
a.<*sail our firesides, under the sanction of Congres- 
sional enactments. 

Mr. Van Buren is pledged to use it for that pur 
pose — General Harrison is not. 

JOHN FORSYTH. 



LETTER OF LITTLETON W. TAZEWELL OF VIRGINIA.l 



Norfolk, August 23, 1840. 

Sib: Yourletter of yesterday was handed me when it was too 
late for me to reply to it by the servant who bore L. After the 
very explicit and often repeated declarations made by me to 
the committee of which you were a member, that I would not 
take any part in the ferocious contest now raging throughout 
the country, further than by giving my vote on the day of elec- 
tion, I did not expect to be called upon again to abandon this 
purpose, especially by one of the members of that committee. 
You misunderstand the reasons which induced me to form this 
resolution, if you suppose it can be changed either by repeating 
to me the unmerited commendations of too partial friends, or the 
infamous and malignant falsehoods of those whom I despise too 
much to call them foes. 

I have no reason to believe that I could influence a single vote 
any where, if I would; and I am very sure that I would not, if I 
could. My opinions upon any subject, when regarded as of suf 
ficient consequence to be sought for by any of my acquaint- 
ance, have never been withheld from them ; nor will they ever 
be concealed from any one. These opinions, in regard to the 
respective merits of the two candidates for the Presidential office 
were given to the members of your committee, when asked for 
by them, as they had been before given te several other persons 
of both parties, and as they have been repeated to such persons 
smce. I^obtrude them upon none, but I am as indifferent who 
may know them, as I am by whom they may be approved. 
They are my opinions, and would continue to be such although 
no other being on earth might concur with me. 

Upon these opinions, as I formerly said to you, I shall act at 
the approaching election, by giving my suffrage in favor of the 
present President, and of consequence against his opponent. I 
have an acquintance of some standing with both the candidates, 
founded upon a service with each of them for several successive 
years in the Senate of the United States. This acquaintance 
justifies me in saying of each, that he is a well bred gentleman, 
of mild and amiable manners and deportment, and so far as I 
either know or believe, of irreproachable private character. 
General Harrison is my senior by several years,! know, and there 
fore, he cannot be much short of seventy. iMr. VanBureaismy 
junior by more yea's, I believe, than General Harrison is my se- 
nior. In their political course these gentlemen have generally dif- 
fered; and while we were all associated as members of the Senate 
of the United States,'it was my,fortune to differ sometimes with 
both. The occasions of my difference with Mr. Van Buren were 
few and rare; but with General Harrison,! do not remember a sin- 
gle subject, involving any qaeslion of constitutional law, or of 
high political expediency, as to which we ever concurred. 
And on the few occasions in which ! differed with Mr. Van 
Buren, he was associated with General Harrison. Hence, it 
cannot be matter of surprise to any, that when placed in a situa- 
tion where ! am to choose between two persons, with neither 
of whom do I agree entirely, ! should prefer him with whom I 
have often united both in opinion and action, to him with whom 
I have invariably diflered. 

I state these things that, knowing the effect which is some- 
times produced upon human minds by frequent and long con- 



tinued conflicts of opinion upon subjects of much interest, you. 
may appreciate as you please the sentiment I have often ut- 
tered, and will therefore again repeat, that, in my judgmeiit, 
General Harrison is both physically and intellectually incompe- 
tent to perform the many, varied, arduous, and important du- 
ties which must devolve upon every President of the United 
States; that it is not prudent to expose our country to the certain 
perils which must await it, should its destinies ever be com- 
mitted to a President by accident, in times of difficulty and high 
e.xcitement, and that such a catastrophe is always probable, 
when one is elevated to the Presidential chair, who has already 
reached the full term ordinarily considered as the limit of man'3 
life. 

To a kind letter from friends in a distant State, inquiring 
what were my opinions of Mr. Van Buren's administra- 
tion, I have recently replied. A copy of this reply is now 
before me; andeisit truly represents my sentiments upon this 
subject, 1 will transcribe my answer to the inquiry propound- 
ed. "! was opposed to Mr. Van Buran when he was first a 
candidate for the Vice Presidential chair, and my opposition to 
him was continued when he was afterwards a candidate for the 
station he now holds. Upon each of these occasions, there were 
other candidates who, as I thought, agreed with my opinions 
more exactly, and whom, therefore I preferred. Entertaining 
such sentiments, I have watched his course, since he came into 
power, with a vigilance that might not, perhaps, have been 
used by me under other circumstances. Yet, with all this vi. 
gilance, ! have not been able to detect a single unconstitutional 
act that has been done or proposed by him during his adminis- 
tration. This is not a slight merit, at least in my eyes; and 
when I connect with it that the whole scheme of his policy, in 
regard to all our relations, whether foreign or domestic, haa 
evinced much sagacity, prudence, and forbearance, and this, 
too, under circumstances of great difliculty, I cannot withhold 
my appiobation from such a course. 

"These are not the sentiments of one who has any claim, or 
even pretension, to be considered as a friend of present the Pre- 
sident. They are the result of a careful examination into all 
his public acts, since he has occupied his present station— an 
examination made with as much candor and impartiality as I 
could command. This examination was commenced, I own, 
with no expectation that it would end in such a result. But it 
has so terminated; and common justice, as well as common 
honesty, compel me to award him a meed, in my judgment, he 
has so well deserved. The susport he has thus fairly earned, I 
will willingly give him, so long as he shall continue to merit it. 
Nor will! ever concur in the attempt to remove any tried ser- 
vant, who, as! thinlc, has deserved well of his country." 

And now, sir, having satisfied all your inquiries, to the end 
that I may not be compelled to undergo the same labor again, 
I commit this letter to you, to be used as you may think proper. 
I am, sir, respectfully. 

Your most obedient serTant, 

LITTLETON W. TAZEWELL, 
Dr. J. P. YouNs, Portsmouth, Va. 



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